Odds and Ends

On this dreary, dark, and rainy Sunday, I was feeling tired and lazy so I decided to experiment with some new products that I bought at Ulta Beauty on Friday.

One of the items I picked up was this lip gloss for hydrating and plumping up your lips. It is strawberry flavored with a hint of sweet lavender and it has a cute little heart-shaped clicker at the bottom to move it out of the applicator ...

Another item I bought was this ColourPop pallet with neutral colors called "Feelin' Bubbly" to use with my Chanel Noir Allure colored mascara, "Orange Bruni" ...

To be honest, I seldom wear eyeshadow, but when I do I try to wear one that will compliment the color mascara I am using.

The following is my personal list of the best colored mascaras with the most color payoff and bang for your buck!! And, of the worst colored mascaras that I have tried.

Best Blue-colored Mascaras

1) Pat McGrath Dark Star Mascara - "Azure Allure" ❌

2) Urban Decay Special Effect Mascara - "Gonzo" ❌

3) Maybelline Sky High Mascara - "Blue Mist"

4) L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara - "Cobalt Blue"

5) ColourPop BFF Mascara - "Blue Ya Mind"

Best Pink-colored Mascaras

1) Pat McGrath Dark Star Mascara - "Pink Mistique ❌

2) Maybelline Sky High Mascara - "Pink Air"

3) ColourPop BFF Mascara - "Pink Inc."

4) Urban Decay Special Effect Mascara - "Junkshow" ❌

Best Purple-colored Mascara

1) ColourPop BFF Mascara - "Purple Prose"

2) Chanel Noir Allure Mascara - "Lilas"(#37)

3) Lime Crime Astronomical Mascara - "Nebula" ❌

4) Chanel Noir Allure - "Amethyste" (#27)

5) Urban Decay Special Effect Mascara - "Vice" ❌

Best Green-colored Mascaras

1) Pat McGrath Dark Star Mascara - "Aquamarine Dream" ❌

2) Urban Decay Special Effect Mascara - "Deep End" ❌

3) ColourPop BFF Mascara - "Kiss 'n' Teal" ❌

4) ColourPop BFF Mascara - "Swell Season"

5) Lime Crime Astronomical Mascara - "51" ❌

 

More Beautiful colored Mascaras!

Chanel Noir Allure Mascara - "Orange Bruni" (#57)

ColourPop BFF Mascara - "Sugar Pie" ❌

ColourPop BFF Mascara - "Wood Spirit" ❌

Chanel Noir Allure - "Rouge Intense" (#47)

ColourPop BFF Mascara - "Left on Red"

Worst Colored Mascaras

1) Benefit BADgal colored mascaras

2) NYX colored mascaras

3) L'Oreal Voluminous - Violet, Green

4) Maybelline Snapscara colored mascaras

5) Maybelline Great Lash colored mascaras

6) Maybelline BIG SHOT colored mascaras

 ❌ = Denotes product line discontinued, but may still be available on some sites.

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After Christmas Festivities!

Greetings all! Today, I had a wonderful time out with my sister. We exchanged our gifts to each other, enjoyed lunch, then went - yup, you guessed it - SHOPPING! 🎁 

My beautiful "seester" opening up her presents!

My lovely gifts from her ...

An awesome sage scented Yankee Candle - "Holiday Sage"

Love these sterling silver Cat earrings!

 

Cool Mermaid key chain.

Heavenly scented votive candle.

 

Japanese Cherry Blossom hand sanitizer.

 

A new found book I picked up at Barnes & Noble Bookstore ...

Along with this new Lap Desk with Cup Holder - Cat Bookshelf ...

Something new from Ulta Beauty ...

ColourPop Super Shock eye shadow "Ripple"

ColourPop eyeshadow pallet "Feelin' Bubbly".

Have a Blessed weekend everyone!

A low key Christmas

Greetings and salutations, friends! This was my first Christmas holiday since my mom passed away this past April. Truthfully, I just wanted to get through it, but it was okay because we spent the day with my MIL. We took food to make Christmas dinner at her house. It was quiet, but nice.

 

My hubby gifted me with two special cards - one from him and one from "the cats". This awesome mermaid Christmas card was from our cats, signed inside with a single paw print ...

In addition to the cards, My husband surprised me with these two unique candles he ordered from Great Britain off of Jeremy Clarkson's online store. For those of you who are not familiar with Jeremy Clarkson, he was one of the hosts of the British television series of many years called, "Top Gear". He currently has a new television series called, "Clarkson's Farm" which is a real HOOT! Both my husband and I enjoy watching it! His home grown vegetables - as well as many other products are sold under his business name, "Diddly Squat Farm" Shop ...

Crackling Logs and Seasonal Spices. A warm, smokey and nostalgic scent with hints of Christmas citrus tones.

The unique and leathery scent blended with hints of oakmoss and earthy spices.

 

I decided to throw on my holiday makeup and red sweater ...

After we arrived home from my MIL's house, some kitty love from my gal Lady Tabitha! ... 🐈🐱

Kitty kisses ...

Charlie and Teddy ...

Have a blessed rest of the week everyone!

Christmas vs. Yule

Many years ago, I saw this cool documentary on the history of the holiday of Christmas, its' origins and transformation throughout the years. It was featured on The History Channel. Back then, I had recorded it from my VCR onto a tape, but recently I found it on YouTube and thought that I would share it with you. It is about 45 minutes in length, but I promise you it is well worth your time watching!  

I also included a bit of extra info regarding Yule traditions! I hope you enjoy!

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                  (Excerpts shared from "Harvest Moon Enchancements" by The Good Witch)

The twelve days of Christmas originate with the Norse, beginning the night before the winter solstice and ending on the 6th of January when all decorations are removed.

Many of our modern traditions are rooted in the old pagan celebrations.

Mother Earth is asleep. It is a time of death, no crops grow, the earth is barren and food may be scarce.

Each day following the solstice grows longer with increasing sunshine and the promise of a rebirth of life.

Anthropologist E.W. Budge believed that this event was celebrated as long as 12,000 years ago.

• Yule is our celebration of the rebirth of the Sun. It is our rejoicing of the triumph of life over death.
• The theme of Yule is the return of light and the everlasting life of evergreens, representing continuing life.
• The earth has grown silent. It is the dark days, a time for contemplation of the year that has passed. It is a time of planning new beginnings, fresh starts, and the promise of blessings and things to come.
• It is a reaffirmation of life everlasting. We decorate with a focus on evergreens representing life – bay leaves, mistletoe, holly, vines, and holly berries. The trees of Yule are spruce, fir, and pine. Pine represents protection, healing, purification, wealth, rebirth, and immortality. We decorate with candles to welcome back the light.
• This is a day of feasting, dancing, and merry-making. No work is done on this day.
• The Norse believed that bells scared away bad fairies and scared away the dark. That is where the tradition of jingle bells originated.

Activities and Decorations:

Yule and the winter solstice are perhaps the busiest sabbats we have. It is combined with Christmas celebrations full of activities, parties, and family fun.

Yule is a celebration of the Sun.

Bonfires are lit, and a festival of lights represents the returning Sun. This is the origin of the tradition of hanging Christmas lights on our houses. This stems from the belief that “As above, so below.”

Light is the main theme of the winter solstice. Adorn your home with candles. The color white is for the returning light, green is for life everlasting, and red represents the sun.

The Yule Fire:

A Yule fire is a major feature to celebrate Yule and the winter solstice. Often, a piece of the Yule log from the prior winter will be saved to ignite this fire.

If you have no fireplace, an outdoor firepit or even a white candle placed in your cauldron can be used. Traditionally, the Yule fire remains burning till dawn

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FYI, this is a wonderful book written by Dorothy Morrison entitled, "Yule: A Celebration of Light & Warmth"!

 

Blessed Yule & Winter Solstice

 

Greetings, my friends and welcome to the first day of the Winter Solstice - ready or not! I took this pic just this morning although it actually began snowing on and off yesterday here in Berks County, PA ... ❆⛄🎄

I have been off from work since Tuesday and my husband was sick all week. Hence, I also now have a cold - sore throat, stuffy nose, and sneezing. At least I do not have to work all next week either because the company I work for is on holiday shutdown.

In the meantime, I stayed home and did a little organizing and such - very little. Hopefully, by next week I will feel better so that I can do more. Yesterday, I was cleaning out my makeup case. Getting rid of the old stuff as the blushes, eyeliners, and mascaras supposedly only have a six month shelf life. 

Okay, I was bored and decided to share a few more mascara swatches on my blog. These are color comparisons of the various shades I have purchased. As always, I used the L'oreal White Primer first before applying the colored mascaras. It helps to bring out the brightness and pigment of each color. So, here goes.

Lime Crime Astronomical mascara "Nebula" (above) and Chanel Noir Allure "Lilas" ...

On the left the "Lime Crime"  (Nebula) and on the right "Chanel Noir Allure" (Lilas). I much prefer the lighter Chanel Lilas to the deeper lavender in color of Nebula ... 

Next, two different shades of pink colored mascaras. Maybelline Sky High (Pink Air) mascara ...

and, ColourPop BFF mascara (Pink, Inc.) ...

Other than the obvious difference between the two brushes (the Maybelline, like the Chanel Noir Allure brushes, is flexible and helps separate your lashes well as opposed to the ColourPop brush which is soft, but the formula is somewhat thicker and so it tends to get rather clumpy), Maybelline Sky High is a bit lighter in pigment than the ColourPop. If you are going for a more subtle look, Pink Air is perfect. I love both colors; however, I am partial to the Pink, Inc. because I like the fact that it shows up a bit better ...

On the left Maybelline Sky High Mascara (Pink Air) and on the right ColourPop (Pink Inc,)

Since I liked the Maybelline Sky High Pink Air color so much, I decided to try the Blue Mist color with my ColourPop Super Shock eyeshadow called "Dream Much". The color is very vibrant and pretty! ...

And finally, Clinque's Chubby Lash Flattening mascara line. There were three colors other than black available when they introduced this product -   "Two Ton Teal", "Portly Plum", and "Massive Midnight" ... 

I was only able to purchase the "Portly Plum" and the "Massive Midnight", but the Portly Plum was far too dark and it, as with almost all burgundy, darker green, and dark purple colored mascaras, looked more black in color than anything and so I decided to get rid of it.

In compassion to Maybelline's Sky High "Blue Mist" (on left) the Clinique's "Massive Midnight" (on right) is a much darker shade of blue (too much like Navy Blue) and not one I will be wearing very often, if at all ...

The problem with most colored mascaras is that regardless of the brand, they come and go. The main reason for this is that they are considered trends and therefore it comes down to a matter of whether or not the cosmetic company will profit enough from it - which unfortunately is very rarely. One of the few colored mascaras which has stood the test of time is L'oreal Voluminous Cobalt Blue which can be found in almost any store for a lot less than the high end brands. Which is why when I like a colored mascara I buy as  much as I can while I can before it is discontinued. Brands such as Lime Crime, Urban Decay, and some of the ColourPop colored mascaras are no longer available for purchase unless you are lucky enough to find them on Amazon or Ebay.

I have included some cool videos of the brands that are still available ...

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