Well I seem to be recovering from the holiday fairly well but the weather it seems is in for a relapse. The sun started out late as though it too wanted to sleep through the alarm and then it rallied for a bit. Now, clouds are moving in and the sun is nowhere to be found. It is days like this that make me just want to crawl back into bed. However I actually had my eyes flutter open around three am this morning and refuse to shut again. They would blink but as for actual sleep, that was a no go.
I am still oddly awake and not the slightest bit sleepy now even though it is mid afternoon. I thought that lunch time would see me start to drowse, which is why I went in hard this morning on all the things I needed to do. . I figured there might be an urgent nap time in the afternoon. Thus far, no call for napping. Which I am okay with. If I can stay awake and non drowsy for the rest of the day there is a good chance that I will sleep well tonight. I know, a bit more than you probably care to know, but i find it a bit strange.
Between the weather and the sleep it is throwing off my exercise game though.
I think that has been heavily on my mind since I got back. December was filled with more gatherings than I think we have had in the past few years. I think part of it is that most of my friends are extra cautious and so any get togethers have been very much social distanced. I think there is also a desire to get together and I think there were also family issues this year. Some people weren’t traveling for various reasons but still wanted to get together. Or maybe I am just more aware of it this year. My mother declared this was a minimum Christmas this year. My brother’s birthday was on December 29th and so his birthday and Christmas were always linked and the first year after his death was hard on all of us. It is also why we made such a big deal about Thanksgiving this year. No one was going to be in the mood for a big Christmas. And if there weren’t little kids to celebrate i think my mother would have called the entire Holiday off this year.
Food wise I was okay with the snacking. I managed to limit myself. But i also noticed that as the month went on and more and more non-standard affairs went on, the less I kept track of things. i also took time out for doing the extra holiday things. I have no complaints about that. I enjoy wrapping presents and decorating for the holiday and all the other things that have to do with the holidays but there is no denying that they do take time. And if work still has to be done then it is exercise time that gets shorted.
It also didn’t help that when the temps dropped to single digits, the sunroom where I do my indoor workouts became positively frigid so several of those workouts got skipped. And on the 29th I celebrated (if that is the right term) my brother’s birthday with Pizza and the WWE’s Royal Rumble. As did all of the family actually. I think a couple of people deliberately signed onto a streaming service to be able to see it. My brother adored both the WWE and pizza so it seemed a fitting thing to do. I am glad I did it. There was laughter as well as tears and it was good.
It has also been a really long time since I mindlessly ate in front of the television. Usually i separate food and TV. I ate far more than I needed to.
All of this means i am pretty sure i gained weight over the holiday. I will find out Friday morning, but I wanted to put this here. It is sort of to brace myself. I have already admitted to myself that I gained weight and acknowledged why. I know it isn;t a normal thing and can thus move on, accepting what Friday’s scale tells me.
I know, sorry to pull you into my personal therapy but I am guessing that in this wide world I am not the only one who is facing January realizing that the indulgences of December did not magically disappear when the calendar turned on New Year’s. For me it always helps to sort of sit down, face what I did and why I stepped out of my plan. It helps me let it go so that when I step on the scale Friday morning i can face the numbers knowing that I have already addressed the issue. I find separating the addressing the issue and the stepping on the scale helps me out. Perhaps it will help you too.
Which was heavier than I planned to get on a Tuesday. We’ll chalk it up to low sleep and move into something lighter.
Today’s Look
Primer: Marc Jacobs Under (cover) primer (discontinued- from the January Use Up Box)
Foundation: Yensa Skin on Skin BC Full Coverage Foundation
Bronzer/Blush/Highlighter: Realher Ultimate Glow Getter Cheek Trio
Setting Powder: Becca Pink Haze Setting powder (discontinued)
Eyeshadow Primer: Pretty Vulgar Eyeshadow Primer
Eyeshadow: Urban Decay Naked honey Eyeshadow Palette
Mascara: Iconic London Triple Threat Mascara
Brows: GrandeBrow Fill Volumizing Brow Gel
Lips: Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip in Tulle
Setting Spray: Ciate London Watermelon Burst Setting Spray
The Mar Jacobs Primer is from my use up box and is discontinued. I’m hoping to use it up this month and clear it out. I really like it but alas, it is no longer being made.
I love this Yensa Foundation. I enjoy their other foundations, but this is my favorite. in fact at the moment it is my hands down favorite foundation in my collection It is half empty at the moment and I am trying to hold up repurchasing it. i think that I might have to make a deal with myself. If I clear out two foundations from my collection I can repurchase this one. It is just my favorite go to foundation and it always looks good on my skin.
This Real Her Cheek Trio I actually took with me traveling. It is slim and compact and the product work really well. I tend to lean more heavily on this in the summer because of the shades but if I dip lightly into the pan it works well in the winter time as well. The highlighter is the one product I don’t like in the winter. In the summer when i am tanned it blends really well with my skin but in the winter when i am a bit pale it tends to look a little brassy on the skin. So I avoided the highlighter. As I like the natural glow of the Yensa foundation it worked out well.
I went for the Becca powder today because I am so close to using it up. It is part of my use up box and I actually think that with this week and possibly next weeks worth of use I can actually use it all the way up. It is a great powder but discontinued and the packaging is quite bulky. I know I won’t reach for it once i order a new pink powder (and will probably end up trying out several pink powders to find one I like which will also take up space) so I want to clear it out before i look for a replacement. So for the next week or so, I will be using it a lot.
I tend to forget eyelid primers a lot and so this one is getting a little on the old side which is why I put it in my use up box. It is my favorite eyeshadow primer though so once it is used up I will probably reorder it. I have a few shadows that really need a primer underneath. The Urban Decay isn’t one of them, but it didn’t hurt anything and I am trying to get in the habit of using it. It works well and creates a nice even colored canvas for the shadow.
I love this Naked Honey eyeshadow palette. It is easy to work with and instead of just slapping on a shade (which I can do with this palette) it always calls me to play. which is fun with eyeshadow. I just really like playing with this palette. i know i have several palettes i need to test out (and am looking forward to testing out) but this is just one of my favorite eyeshadow palettes and I figured if i was using one of my favorite foundations then i might as well use one of my favorite eyeshadow palettes. It is just such a fantastic palette. I just couldn’t resist it today.
This is a brand new tube of mascara opened for the first time today. However the name sounds familiar and makes me feel like I have tried it as a sample at some point. However I can’t recall it at the moment. The wand is thin and I usually prefer thicker wands. It works well. It is supposed to volumize, lengthen and lift if you are wondering the three threats. There is no volumizing but it lengthens pretty decently and it lifts well. The lifting is it’s strong suit. It is a decent mascara but it is one i will use and let go of not one I will repurchase. I am happy to use it though.
This year seemed to be the brow gel invasion. I tried not to take it as a personal commentary, but I do have a lot of brow gels to try out. In general I love Grande cosmetics. when my ill fated attempts to use false lashes ended up ripping out most of my natural lashes I turned to them and they did an amazing repair job with their lash serum (Highly recommend, btw). I tried their liner yesterday and need to practice and continue using it as it went on really well and lasted all day. it is just my application of a liquid liner that needs to improve. So I ad no trouble deciding to pick this out of my stack of brow gels to try first. This is a clear gel which I like and it locks my brows into place without feeling like I have superglue on my eyebrows. Thus far I am rather enjoying it. The volumizing did have me worried I would end up looking a bit Neanderthal but thus far we are doing just fine. We’ll see how I feel as use continues.
This is one of the two lipsticks in my use up box, mostly because there is not a lot of product left in the tube and the tube is aging. I love the color but it is a little bit of a drying formula. It does cause it to crumble a little after mid day, but for a morning meting it is really good. I just add lip balm over it post lunch.
I will be honest i do tend to forget to use setting sprays. I have a bunch of them I need to use so I chose the Ciate to start with. Mostly because it came in a Boxycharm recently (December I think) and it was at the front of the shelf. It has a nice mist to it and a nice watermelon scent which is kind of nice and summery. I figure if the weather can forget the seasons so can my setting spray. It works well and I will be using it every day in January. At the end of the month I will see how i feel about it and if it is worth repurchasing. For the moment though I really like it. The scent is really not much of an issue. It is the spray that gets me. this has a fine mister which is what I look for as it means fewer chances of splotches of wet on my makeup. Thus far it is also locking in the makeup well so that is also a good thing. I am more than happy to use this setting spray for the month. Plus in winter a good setting spray helps me from looking dry and powdery as the day wears on.
And that my darlings is me today. I started with a fabulous foundation and used my favorite eyeshadows so personally I am happy. And now, it is back to work for me. I’m doing my best to stay a head of things this year. It’s not exactly a new year’s resolution, just an understanding that things happen and if I am always a little ahead, the things that happen might not take as dramatic a chunk out of my schedule. I know it is a vain hope but as I spent the last few months trying desperately to catch up after my schedule was torpedoed, I rather enjoy the thought of actually being slightly ahead. It makes me happy.
Ms. Mimsy Reviews 