Eye Makeup Remove Q-Tips

Hey Chicas!

So I was checking out the Dollarama the other day, and I'm sorry but the makeup section always gets me.  Every freakin' time!   It's like its calling to me, "look I'm only $2 please bring me home, Please!", and of course the last please is in a whiny child voice.  And who reallllyyy can say no to that.  TMI, sorry but you must understand the pull that the aisle has on me.

So I managed to get out there only spending a small fortune.  The first item that I want to bring to you guys is the Eye makeup remover swabs....

As you can see the picture on the box is pretty self explanatory.  And for only $2 if it doesn't work, than who cares.

The swabs come in individual wrapped packages....

The individual wrapped is a little annoying, as they are tough to pop out of the plastic, and its a lot of waste of plastic.  Regardless....

So you pop the cotton swab out of the plastic (after some difficulties) and you have what looks like a normal swab.  Expect its not at all. hehe..  The center between the cotton is a hollow plastic tube, this is where the products travels down.

The end that has the blue strip on it, be careful with that one until you're ready!

The basic idea is that end that has the blue strip on it you snap it, or bend it over and it releases the makeup remover to the other end of the swab.  It requires a little more effort than one would think for a q-tip but bend it like Beckham...or, actually just until it snaps.

 Once it snaps that releases the makeup remover product.  It flows down to the other white q-tip end.   With this end you can remove your eye makeup.  But Wait!! do you think you can?????


According to the box.....

For those of you who don't want to squint the words out it states. 

"Keep out of eyes."

So yeah, I'm assuming that it means not IN your eye, and hopefully AROUND your eye is ok.  Since you know its for eye makeup removing :-)


You do get a good amount of product in the Q-Tip, it is pretty easy to use.  My only issue is that the cotton swab end, isn't very cottony, meaning that it can't absorb the makeup that it takes off very well.  It cuts through the makeup really well, but to get that black residue off you need another cotton pad or facecloth to finish the job.


Overall, if you're in a pinch and travelling and don't want to take a whole bunch of crap with you, spending two bucks on some cotton swab makeup remover all in one, will not only save you space, but cash as well.


Caitlin xoxo

How to quench charred Skin

Hey Chicas!

So I’m back and recovered, somewhat.  The remnants of the burn, is the lovely peeling.  A constant reminder of the stupidness of charring your skin (and the bada$$ tan lines), at any point in your life!

A visual reminder!

Having said that, I have tested out a number of Sun Burn “Relief” agents, and lived to talk about it.  So here is your complete  list of the best and the ok ones.  Not that you will need it, because we won’t ever be that stupid.  Right?.......Right?

The first one that I tried is the standard Aloe Vera.  Just because its Hempz doesn’t mean that it’s the best.......you got that?  It is for all intensive purposes the exact same as Life Brand aloe vera, but if you’re like me, you want to know for sure, and I know, it’s the same!  

•  Its sticky, as all aloe vera is (as in it took 5 full minutes to peel off an oversized shirt from my back, not the best when the skin in tender) 
• Has a nice smell 
• Can be cheap 
•  Slight Moisturizing  effect Slight cooling effect (didn’t take out the feel of heat in my sever burn, but on slight redness I have no doubt it would work)

The next in line was the Hawaiian Tropic I.C.E Lidocaine Gel. 

• It is definitely less sticky then the aloe, 
• Loved the smell, 
• It was BLUE! 
• Great pump 
• Took the heat out more than the Aloe but still not all gone 
•  Could  apply lots of it and still absorb (not that easy with the aloe)

I found an article on line about good ol’ fashioned Noxzema working wonderful to decrease the amount of heat in the burn.  So I bought a tub and decided to give it ago.

• You need a buddy (aka very hard to apply yourself, as its a thick creamy consistency and wants to stay on your hands) 
• You need to apply a few layers 
• I liked the smell....its standard Noxzema scent, so decide for yourself 
• Has the tingly cooling feeling (in a good way) 
• It doesn’t look pretty on 
• Hard to remove

Next came the Solarcaine Medicated Lidocaine Gel.  I picked this up at Wal-Mart, I remembered my  brother having this stuff in his room, when I was growing, he cut commercial grass, so I figured it could be too bad.

• Easy squeeze tube bottle (great for slippery fingers and hands) 
• Has a nice fresh scent 
• Could feel the cooling sensation 
• Noticed relief of heat in my skin (Major)

 At this stage, the burn has gone down, as it would have without using anything.  So I thought that I could try the Vaseline Aloe Fresh Moisturizing, which is a daily moisturizing gel. 

• Not sticky at all, 
• Absorbs very fast 
• Slight cooling feeling 
•  Slight moisturizing

So all in all, it was a helpful little exercise, unnecessary, but helpful.

If you have a slight pink tinge from being out in the sun or at the beach, the standard Aloe Vera, would be fine.  I actually think that the Vaseline Aloe Fresh, would work better because it’s not as sticky, but compared to the aloe vera, not at all. 

If you have a severe burn then that stuff’s not gonna cut it!  Now the Noxzema was the best to remove the heat from the burn, but its messy, very messy.   You need someone to help you apply it.  And you have to remove the excess from your skin because it kinda dries itself and the extra remains.  The issue is that it remains a white gloppy mess, its not like you could go anywhere with it, it had to be removed.  The only way was to basically have a shower, we have a hand shower and someone had to rub my back with a soft wash cloth to remove the stuff, and it wasn’t a fast process, and it hurt a little a lot actually.  So it removed a lot, a lot of heat from my back, but I’m still unsure if the removal process is worth the gain.

Having said that, the best one is the Solarcaine Medicated Lidocaine Gel, see even Emma approves!   

I think it worked the best because of the Medicated Lidocaine, the Hawaiian Tropics has Lidocaine as well, and both have the same amount of the Lidocaine 0.5%.  So I’m not sure why one felt better than the other, but I’m going with the Solarcaine!

So I hope you found that helpful, but something that you will never need to use!

Caitlin xoxo

Flower Beds

Hey Chicas!

So my back is healing.....slowly, but the important thing is that there is a slight improvement. If anything good can come for this scorching of my skin, it would have to be testing the various Sun Burn "relief" products out there.  And......ready for it.....I MAY have found a winner, another go at it tonight should determine the winner.  So at least you can heal faster, nicer, less painful then I did, when the summer comes around.  But you really shouldn't have gotten a burn in the first place.  OMG could you imagine if that had been my face!  Talk about aging yourself another 10 years in a few hours!!

So the cottage, is my parent's cottage, not mine.  I don't even own a house yet! 

Just wanted to clear that little tidbit of information up.

This was the cottage on the outside before we did anything to it.  Do we all notice that upside down lamps by the door.  It was one of the first things that I noticed.  Anal, totally, but someone needs to be able to pick these things out. :-) 


This the final result, as of now, meaning there very well could be other items changed.  We rarely leave a flower bed as is.  Which is one of the nice things about gardening you can create such different affects by the choice of plants you use, and even the color of those plants.

Taken from my camera phone, in the late afternoon, with very tired arms.

When I was young I used to H-A-T-E gardening, but now when I see the results and the before and afters, I actually like it. (Do NOT tell my mother that)

I am quite proud of the hard work, maybe not so much my crisp back, but the end results are pretty good.

Here are few more shots.....because I know you really care! :P

Click on the images to see them bigger!

You however care about the type of plants we planted.  Maybe, if not then simply browser through some other posts that catch your interest.

We tired to pick natural flowers, by that I mean, nothing too exotic for little old PEI, and ones that you can see in the wild, that fill out and will require little maintenance in the long run.

Keep in mind that all the flowers came from the charity drive (so $40 bucks for these you see and extra that we had to take home), and from the home garden.

Plants Planted:

2 types of hostas - elephant ear (dark green), and the one with the white center (sorry gardeners, I'm not sure of the names)

African Fern (appearance of a fuzzy fiddle head)

Bleeding Heart

Violets (white and purple)

Small yellow/orange lillies

Lambs year

Forget me Nots

(more to came as the names come to me!)

Hope you guys enjoyed that little post, and if you'd like to see more like this.......well tell me,

 and I shall do my best!

Caitlin xoxo



Weekend Plans

Hey Chicas!

So how was your weekend.  Mine was very productive, and I'm not being sarcastic at all!  We spent Saturday on the hunt for some plants.  And by we I mean my mom and I.  There was a plant sale, and all the profits were going to a charity, so what better time to buy some plants.

 So lets back it up just a little bit....This is the before picture of the outside of the cottage.  Ummm I little eh....umm GREEN right. Yeah that's what  we all thought to.

It was a total DIY, fix-er-upper and it's been a work in progress for a few years now.  The inside has since been completed for a while and the outside has been painted and etc, but the landscaping needed a little alot of something-something.

First off was paint, and I can proudly say that my mom and I painted the whole cottage ourselves (a little help from my Dad for the tall parts) the front, sides and back!  

So we did the planning a little backwards.  We bought the plants, all of them for under $40, to that was awesome, but then we needed to decide what we were going to do with them.  Hello, Mr. Photoshop..

click on pic for a larger view

  I'm no expert at this but I think that it helped to at least visualize the look we were going for.  Not that the final result ended up this way, because it didn't, but it was a good guide.

I can prove all my hard work, but not by pics yet (they are on a dead phone at the moment, up tomorrow), but by the physical evidence......

yeah umm..ouch is a total understatement.  

Lets just keep in mind that this is a day after as well.  I have a lot of healing to do.  To see a post on how not to this click HERE.  To here how I am attempting to fix the above issue, stay tuned!  

Oh and if you want to see the flower beds finished......I suppose you should check back too. :-)

Caitlin xoxo

The Salon Shoppe - My Scent Refillable Atomizer Refill

Hey Chicas!   

I had totally planned on doing this review/tutorial before I left for the long weekend.  But alas, that didn't happen at all.  So I hope that you all in Canada had a wonderful Victoria Day Weekend, me, myself, I'm still trying to recover from my shopping trip down to South Portland!  And for all of those in the USA, I hope you enjoy the upcoming Memorial Day weekend!

Moving on to my super late post........I have found a super awesome little gadget!  Well gadget, probably not, but cool none-the-less..

I found it at Bed Bath and Beyond, regular $13.99 and on sale for....k are you ready for it!? $2.77!!  It's pretty cool.  This is about the cheapest version that I could find, Wal-Mart has some there for about $5, so $14 is a little steep.

It is a "close out" sale and can likely be found up a center isle, but I'm assuming that there are many people that don't know the value of this, as there a heap of them at the store!

********Disclaimer********

These video was filmed after a day of work, (and I recovering from a sore throat), and removal of contacts was a necessity, but I really think that a demo was necessary to show you the actual value of it.



Basically, this thing awesome!  I took it on my trip, and had no issues, and I really enjoyed not having to take a big a$$ bottle, and not having to worry about the bottle breaking or anything like that.

If you have a lot of perfumes, or just one favorite that you want to take everywhere!   This will allow you to carry the scent you want wherever you go, without having to buy 2 bottles of it - one for home, and then a travel size bottle.  So if you do my style of math, that means you could buy a new scent, as you don't have to have 2 of the same! (right?) haha.  See I knew you'd like my logic :-)

Caitlin xoxo

Pink Bronzer - Calling all Fair Skinned Beauties, you'll want this!

Hey Chicas!

(Just a little shout out to the lovely ladies I saw at Shoppers at lunch,

I hope you enjoy my blog!)

So spring is coming (supposedly), and then comes summer, and we all want to get that bronzed look, whether it be natural or with products.  The issues that lies with girls that have fair skin, is that sometimes bronzer looks a little off, it's too dark, and if its the right shade there's no pigment, just sparkles.  It's a major pain in the ass to find.

I think that I have found something that will work for most people that are on the fairer side.  Now I do get quite dark in the summer, even though I wear at least 30 spf!  But in the time span of fall - spring, I go back to being pretty fair.  And the bronzers that I loved when I was dark, just make my face look dirty. 

Enter the Pinkish Bronzer (totally not a good name to call it, but the creativity in me is lacking today). 

I picked up this Quo bronzer on clearance at Shoppers before Christmas for like $8.  It was way to expensive for what it was, I thought at full price.  As you can see it has a nice pink/golden bronzer effect.  

Image: Mine!

The pink is key to giving you a nice rosy glow, but still being a bronzer.  I love it!  As you can see there was some brown/bronzer around the leopard spots, but it's received some lovin'.  I was kinda hoping that the brown/bronzer was solid and not just topped off, but oh well! But was nervous to share it with you because, well I got it on clearance, and what's the point talking about something that you guys likely won't be able to find. 

           

Image: Google

 I had thought about it before as Too Faced has its own version (likely came before Quo, but who cares!) but that stuff is pricey, too pricey for me to recommend to you to buy - as I wouldn't pay for it myself.  I was really getting annoyed because this Pinkish Bronzer is awesome on fair skin, just enough warmth but not dirty, and I like to share!

Finally, another version came out, saw it at Shoppers on the weekend, by one of my fav companies.  Annabelle - Leopard Bronzer

Image courtesy of Annabelle Cosmetics

It is awesome! It doesn't have as much pink, which is likely a little less scary for some of you that are envisioning pink bronzer (which it is not, I promise).  I swatched it at the store, and it is really really similar to the effect that the Quo has (more peach, which when I think about it, is better as fair skin tends to be pink), and look at the pictures, its even closer to the Too Faced!  Plus it's a totally doable price. 

The nice golden brown and peach tones really help to give a sunkissed look without being.......well bronzed/dirty (as it can appear on fair skin) looking, no risk of really overapplying the color.

So whether you have been searching for a new bronzer, or missed out on the Quo, or just can't stand to pay out for the Too Faced, Annabelle has you covered. 

I can think of at least 4 friends right off the top of my head that this color of bronzer would be awesome on!

Caitlin xoxo

Protecting your Email

Hey Chicas!

So, this past weekend was crazy busy, I apologize for the lack of posts.  I really did have good intentions, but they just didn’t get realized. 

I was in St. John New Brunswick from Friday to Sunday, taking a course, and it was intense, but not at the same time, but what can you do.  I get this updated email message on my new phone, (which I will do a post about soon, let’s just say it’s awesome!), from my brother inlaw that I sent him a Viagra email from my email account.  Hmmm…well first off, my email account sent spam {crap}, second how the heck did it get my password {double crap}, and thirdly it was pretty funny (afterwards).  So then I sent myself on a witch-hunt.  Trying to determine where my information might have been obtained from.

First off, I’m not an expert on these things, but my family is pretty good at the tech stuff, so I thought that I’d share my experience at trying to regain my account, and protect others.  This just covers the steps that I took to change things; it may not work for everyone’s computer issues though.

 Rights: http://asknaren.com/wp-content/uploads/protect-email-300x171.jpg

1.       Changed my email password (duh) made it more complicated, this is a good link to help you beef up the password. http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/passwords-create.aspx

2.       Changed my FaceBook password. (note: email and FB, should have different passwords not the same…oppsies).

3.       I also managed my apps on there.  I had some that I added near the beginning of FaceBook, a few months years ago.  Because you know that the apps can access your information, and your friends right?  They basically store information about you, so I thought that a number of those weren’t worth the trouble at all!  Just think about it, do you really need the app that tells you what Twilight character you are?

4.       I unlinked a number of email accounts that I had, and removed, deactivated, deleted some other accounts that I really have no use for. 

5.       I unsubscribed to a number of email newsletters, like from Suzy Shier, WalMart etc.  You never know when they can sell your information!  Besides I get flyers and go to the mall, do I really need to receive the information twice, from different sources….likely not.

Obviously these are not all inclusive list of items, but they are easy, and fast to do, just take a quick look at your own accounts.  You don’t want to have to worry that someone has stolen more from you then just your password, change it iup before they get more. (gosh that last part sounded like a public service message J)

Caitlin xoxo