Good evening all you beautiful readers.  I hope you had an excellent winter break.  I have been in family hell!  Living with my parents is the pits… no offense to them, I’m just a grown up and I hate obeying rules and regulations that are not my own.  I need my own stuff, my own ways, my own schedule…

*sigh*  I wish my son were in school so I could get a nice little day job.  I imagine myself in a gray pencil skirt, red pumps, and a white blouse, answering phones and filing my nails… clearly reality and I parted ways a looonng time ago!

The few joys in  my life are simple.  And that’s what I’m here for tonight: I’ve got some excellent beauty loot to talk about!

As I type this, my nails are shining in Sephora by OPI “Ms Can’t Be Wrong”.  It is a great darker pinkish-purple color without a hint of shimmer… just straight, semi-glossy color.  I am loving it right now.
Sadly, the winter air has been seriously harshing my buzz and killing my manicure.  Luckily though I picked up some Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion (Healthy Hand and Nail).  I have had Bliss, Fresh and Dylan’s Candy Bar lotions in my purse recently (I LOOOVVEE all those impulse trial-size goodies in line at Sephora!) but I have to say, at four bucks this lotion is the best I have tried so far.  It smells nice, goes on smooth, is non-greasy and reeeally moisturizing.  I cut the remaining Fresh Sugar Blossom lotion I had with it,  just for the extra lush scent of the former, and I don’t have to tell anyone my amazing-smelling  lotion is mostly a drugstore brand.  ;)

Another cool product I’ve tried recently is LipFusion XL Advanced Lip Plumping Therapy.  I have never been a lip kinda girl; having nice eyes has been my strong point and well, you work with what you have right?  I got this as a free sample and I have to say, holy shit!  THE BURNING!  THE TINGLING!  I never felt more conscious of my “pout”… I looked in a mirror and sure enough, they “plumped” considerably.  Swelled, really, in my opinion.  I really don’t ever do much with my lips so it was weird.  I put it on right before a party and got compliments all night… nobody knew what exactly was different but definitely noticed.  Hey, whatever works!

That night I wanted to go all out with makeup… It was the night before New Year’s Eve and there is no other time of year to wear glitter and really get away with it.  Luck had it that Sephora sent me some for free!  Channeling Katy Perry, I worked the black and silver smokey eye, topped it with glitter, sprayed it in place,  and finished with a kitten pink lip.  I haven’t had so many compliments in a long time!  It helped that J Lo tried the look half-assedly the next night at Dick Clark’s Rockin New Year’s Eve at Times Square.  Seriously did you see that?  I’m sure you were staring at her ass in that bodysuit thing, but I definitely had to ask what the fuck her makeup artist and hair team were thinking that night.   Hot! mess!

Anyway, for Christmas I got some great eyeshadows by Make Up Forever, a vibrant purple and vibrant aqua.  I really like the color on the bottom lash line thing lately, with black cat eye liner on the lid.  Rihanna does this like a pro; I absolutely love it.  It’s a really fun look for a weekend night and I have to say that purple looked like a million bucks.  On the downside though, it would NOT come off.  It is so highly pigmented that I bet you could wear it swimming and still look good.

I scored a deluxe sample of Benefit’s BadGal Plum with that order, and that shit is the truth.  A reddish-purple mascara with a big fat application wand, BadGal Plum is seriously great for everyday use.  It doesn’t look purple or anything, just like a normal mascara except for the way it makes your eye color pop.  The downside?  After about 5 hours it starts micro-flaking off and makes tired eyes look EXTREMELY tired.  So…… not so great on New Year’s Day.  But otherwise?  Brilliant!

Well, this is about all I have time for.  I have a sunless tanning draft blinking at me, and dammit I haven’t forgotten, I just need to get on it myself before telling you girls what’s up.  I am more pale than the cast of Twilight right now!  Not in a sexy way, either.  Ugggghhhhh I need more me time, please!