What’s the story morning glory? How’s your day treating you? Is it Monday? Or is it Thursday? I’ve taken to calling everyday “DAY”. There is no Monday, there is no Tuesday, it’s just Day. But today I probably should put a little effort in as it’s Thursday and on Thursday we eat Tacos. Thank god there’s two days with T in them am I right? I am attempting to not burn the house today as I prepare Carne Asada and lime rice because I miss Chipotle like Oliver misses Elio. It’s that “my heart hurts I miss you so bad” feeling. Wish me luck because last week I tried making the rice and well, I had to throw out the pot after because that was one sticky ass mess. You know I can’t cook worth a damn. I’m going to try to do this it again tonight because I’ve looked up recipes and I really feel confident I can do it without killing myself or any more pots. Wish me luck.

I thought I’d share my current loves with you beauty and otherwise. Sound good? Feel free to jump in with your list this week!

I currently love…….

Zoflora
I stock pile it like the Zoflora factory is going to burn to the ground. I got lucky because my last trip to London I stocked up on a ton of the smaller bottles and I shipped them back home. In a world where Lysol no longer exists I am now forever in love with my little stash of Zoflora. I feel really grown up using it too and quite like Mrs Hinch! I’m WINNING the disinfect game over here people.

Dr. Denese Firming Facial Microdermabrasion Cream
I dunno what it is maybe it’s because I’ve been stuck up in this house for so long but my dry skin is extra dry lately. I’ve always loved it but I am REALLY loving and appreciating Dr. Denese Firming Facial Microdermabrasion Cream at the moment. It’s really great at exfoliating all the dry bits and reveals super smooth baby skin! Thank you for making me look 20 again Dr Denese.

Mrs Meyer’s Mint Collection
Two cleaning products in one post? Someone hand me my “I’m an Adult Now” certificate! I’m so glad that the Mrs Meyers brought back the Mint scent for Spring. I’m in love with the room spray and yeah, I may or may not like the counter spray and dish soap too. Yup, the signs are all there! I’m an adult now. When you start obsessing over cleaning supplies you’re doing adulting right.

Victoria’s Secret Bare Vanilla
Apparently I am obsessed with smelling like I did in the 8th grade. I see you, I know you were that girl (or guy) wearing Victoria’s Secret Body Mists (or Bath and Body Works Freesia) in Junior High School. I remember in the 7th grade my friend Christina got Angel Perfume for Christmas. This was like a big deal because I was so a late bloomer and I wasn’t really thinking fragrance at that age quite yet. I was still a bit of a bookworm. I just newly rediscovered the Bare Vanilla Body Mist from Victoria’s Secret and people, it feels like 8th grade all over again. It’s such a great vanilla scent and reminds me of vanilla cake! I might not be going out right now but I smell yummy!

Itazura na Kiss
I told myself I WOULD not re-watch It Started with a Kiss during this quarantine! Why? Because I’ve seen it so many times my eyes are about to bleed. Joe Cheng swoon! My promise to myself did not include re-reading it though! I hit my manga shelf and pulled out the complete set of Itazura na Kiss to re-read because I have a type and it’s obviously indifferent guys. I’m talking to you Mr Darcy and you too, Naoki Irie.

TikTok
I am too old for Tiktok. But it has turned into the biggest waste of my time during isolation! I am constantly amazed, amused, and on occasion shocked by the content people put up. When Instagram started becoming a popular social media pick for the beauty and makeup world I begrudgingly signed up for it. It’s not really my favorite place in the world. It can be a negative experience at times not to mention I find the whole let’s post a selfie every five minutes really tiring. I don’t like to take photos of myself and I really don’t like posting them on Insta. We get enough of my mugging on Musings of a Muse no need to do more of it on another site. It’s still a platform that I resent a little bit because it feels like beauty lovers migrated away from blogs to get their info about the latest makeup releases, swatches, etc…from it. It makes me a bit sad. Oddly, enough I sort of embraced Tiktok wholeheartedly unlike Instagram. It’s just pure dumb fun. I’ve made a slew of new friends and arranged to meet up with two of them (after all this is over) that I met over our mutual crush on a fellow Tiktoker. It’s weird how new friends and people enter your life isn’t it?

Heretic Dirty Lemon Eau de Parfum
Heretic recently popped up at Sephora and it reminded me how much I love their Dirty Lemon Fragrance. I think Heretic is convinced that Dirty Lemon is as smooth and naughty as John Wozniak’s crooning “I smell sex and candy”. Sadly, it isn’t. There’s no sex to be had here. There is candy though…! Lemon candy to be exact. Dirty Lemon is a zesty, tart, and slightly cheeky fragrance that I’m currently loving. It brightens up my dull isolated day to wear it.

Us, Our Community
I love us! We make such a great family and community here on Musings of a Muse. I know my comments are crazy and I sometimes take a LONGGGG time to reply to them but I read EVERY single one of them and do my best to get to them all! Thank you for keeping me sane during an insane time. Thank you for making this your home for a few minutes or hours a day!

So, that’s what I’m currently loving.

How about you?

Make your list, post it, discuss!

Looking forward to reading your replies.

43 Comments

If you know makeup and you’re a huge part of the beauty community the “lipstick index” is a term you’re familiar with. If not, that’s ok, we can do a brief history lesson. The Lipstick Index or the Lipstick Economy is a term coined by Leonard Lauder, chairman of the board at Estee Lauder, which he used to describe the increase of cosmetics and beauty items during the recession back in 2001. He actually made the claim that lipstick sales are a great economic indicator because lipstick is actually a hot ticket sales item during a recession. It’s considered a “cheaper” item compared to couture or higher priced accessories like purses or shoes. When lipstick sales go down there’s a good chance that the economy is doing better and is stronger. When lipstick sales go up it’s a sign the economy is doing bad. Women or men feel more comfortable splurging on a pretty lipstick when money is tight compared to splurging on a pretty new piece of clothing or shoes or a new purse.

It’s been suggested during our current pandemic that we’ll have a mascara index which pretty much means eyeshadow and mascara sales will rise up. Why? Obvious one right? We’re all wearing face masks and lipsticks and lipglosses aren’t actually a great option. Lipstick and lipgloss + face mask=red hot mess.

Now, if we all sit around the campfire and share we’ll likely admit that we’re all tired of eyeshadow palettes. For the last three years or so the beauty industry has been saturated with eyeshadow palette releases. We’ve all had enough of it. Some of us have even reached a point that we ban ourselves from indulging. And others just wait for a sale because if we learned anything in the last two years everything goes on sale.

The pandemic has a good chance of changing the beauty industry in a major way. The excess and the endless palette releases might just stop. This could be the great purge we have all been hoping for! We might be actually re-entering a phase in the world of beauty where we’ll see things return to a more normal release schedule. In the past year, we have seen some let up in releases and I suspect we’ll see even more of that when we venture out of this stage in our lives. Heck, maybe we’ll even see things starting to release on a more seasonal schedule.

I do think at this point we’ll finally see some brands revamping their single eyeshadow collections. A lot of brands have been really remiss in their single shade ranges because they’ve spent so much time, money, and attention developing the next biggest palette. Too Faced, Urban Decay, Tarte, and many other mid-range brands are guilty of this. I have no doubts Fall 2020 will be a turning point where brands start focusing on their core permanent range of eyeshadows. This may turn into them revamping their current line or adding new shades to it or maybe even launching an entire new eyeshadow formula.

Sadly, our current situation probably won’t be completely gone by Fall so, I suspect one of the biggest Fall trends will be eyeshadow and eye makeup. As Fall approaches I typically look to the runways to see what sort of makeup trends will pop up but will New York Fashion Week even happen this year? I suspect it will but on a way different level than we are all used to. I also predict eye makeup is going to play an important part of the looks we see on the runways.

But I think we can all agree that we’re heading into an eyeshadow index right now. We better all break out our favorite single shades and grab our fav palettes and start doing up our eyes because the eyes truly are the window to the soul and people are going to be staring at your eyes rather than your whole face for a while.

Guess what? That’s ok. Because I do love a good eyeshadow.

Let it begin!

How will you accent your eyes when you venture outside?

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The last thing on our minds right now is makeup am I right? I mean if we’re honest most of us are probably roaming around our houses in PJs, eating cereal from a box, not washing our hair or shaving our legs.

I have actually never in my life had such a long break from makeup. Makeup has always been a major part of my life. When I was younger I would never consider going out of the house without my face completely on. I’d feel naked if I was sporting a bright eye look! Look back on some of my posts ten plus years ago on this blog and you’ll see that teal and turquoise eyeshadow was a major part of my eyeshadow life. Hey, this girl got the biggest anime eyes around and turquoise rocks on big brown eyes and accents those Bambi eyes I got going on. When your eyes dominate your face bolder eyeshadows are very appealing.

As I got older much of my bright, loud eyeshadow wardrobe got pushed to the side for a lot of nudes and neutrals. And that’s ok, I’m actually cool with that. As I got even older, I started getting braver and going “naked” with my look more often but that look always involved eye makeup, blush, etc…. But with lock down? Lock down has taken naked face to a new level. I’ve just never gone without makeup so long. I actually look all of 12 years old right now.

I readily admit I’ve done my entire face (including highlighter you could see from the next galaxy) just to sit on my couch for a Netflix binge. Because you know what? That’s healthy! A good routine will keep your heart light and your mind will be in a healthy place. Routines are good, try to stick through them especially if you live alone in isolation right now. Use the time to mask, use it to exfoliate, hell, use it to apply as much eyeshadow as you want. Yesterday, I did a winged eye and you guys know I don’t break out that liquid eyeliner often enough right? Because hello, I’m a klutz with liquid eyeliner. But I was flicking away with it and it made me feel pretty and it made me feel safe. I even cracked out the false lashes! GASP! OH MY GAWD!

I was looking at my profile picture I used on Tiktok last night and I had absolutely no makeup on in it and I realized most of you wouldn’t recognize me looking like that. Ironically some of the new friends I’ve made on Tiktok might not recognize me at all if they saw me on Musings of a Muse with makeup on! Fancy that? Let’s face it poorly blended eyeshadow and lots of blush are my signature look ha…! 🙂 It’s kind of weird that when we do finally venture out into the world some of what we love about makeup will be taken away from us. Someone in my comments yesterday mentioned how much she loved lipstick and how that was taken away from her a bit at this time. She’s right. Wearing a face mask is not an ideal situation for lipstick or super glossy glosses. But guess what? You can still break that bright red lipstick out and wear it around the house. Come on! You know me! I’ve totally vacuumed the house while wearing red lipstick. You can do it too!

Don’t let what’s going on right now dim your beauty world. This is going to pass. We’re going to come out of it strong humans. We’ll wear lipstick again, we’ll walk the streets without being afraid of who’s standing ahead of us or behind us, and we’ll most definitely do full faces of makeup again (fake lashes and all!).

I’m a New Yorker. I’m tough. So, if you’re not a New Yorker and need a little strength and a strong demeanor I’m shoving mine off on you today and slapping you in the butt to get up, wash your face, do your hair, and get that red lipstick on so you can load the dishwasher 🙂

I believe in you.

I’m off to find my perfect red lipstick right now. I’m counting on you to find yours.

Good luck!

24 Comments

At which point in your skincare routine should you apply facial oil? Good question right? You might actually be applying at the wrong point of your routine! I know when I first started using facial oils I was using them all wrong.

In 2010, I purchased a bottle of Kiehl�s Midnight Recovery Concentrate and I almost feel positive it was my first real experience with a facial oil. Kiehl’s and Josie Maran sort of gave birth to the world of facial oils and made them mainstream. Since that time I’ve gone through dozens and dozens of different facial oils. I even went through a period where I felt like facial oil was an extra step I didn’t really need. There is such a thing as too much skincare and sometimes it feels like facial oil is that extra step that’s too much. For me, facial oils are reserved for the really cold weather when my skin needs a good deal more moisture.

I think people get a little confused with the application process and when you should apply them. For a long time, when I first started using one I was applying it completely wrong. I was using it more as a serum. It would be applied after my serum and before my moisturizer.

That’s actually the wrong application method.

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I was on Insta today and noticed people posting images of their local TJ and Home Goods being open. I also saw a few folks posting pics of Bath and Body Works as being open. Most of the stores that have reopened are limiting the amount of people who can come in. I’m not sure about TJ and Home Goods but one person said the line to get in was huge and she left because the line to check out was crazy. Bath and Body Works appears to be limiting shops to 15 people.

I gotta admit I miss Home Goods. Guilty as charged. Actually I miss life. Going out to eat, seeing a movie, heading to the park, seeing my friends. I also just miss the routine of strolling down the aisles at Target or the local Whole Foods. I miss Trader Joe!!!!!!!!!!! I keep seeing all these “new” Trader Joe hauls and I’m so jelly.

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