Makeup Fripperies

Last month, Hallie’s makeup bag post guilted me into putting more effort into my appearance. I like to say I’m too busy for makeup, and too inept at applying it, but those are both lies. I’m just lazy about these things.

But my sister’s baby shower is this weekend and I felt like I should at least make an effort to look nice. So I plunged deep into the world of makeup. My ficticious makeup bag is now an actual bag, and with six actual items in it! Here’s what I ended up with:

1. MAC Mineral Concealer: I took this tip from Hallie and Jen, and switched from all over the face powders and foundations to just a concealer for under my eyes and across the bridge of my nose. This is fantastic for many reasons, but the best one is that not applying makeup everywhere means it can’t rub off!
2. MAC LadyBlush: I didn’t actually need this, I had a perfectly good, barely used powder blush. I just tried it out because I loved the name, and it looked so great that I bought it. It’s a good match for my natural flush, so between the concealer covering unwanted flushiness and the blush adding color where it’s needed, I come out looking pretty normal. And it’s a lot easier to apply.
3. MAC Blot Powder: to control the oily spots. I don’t actually have this yet, though – I’m rather angry about that. I specifically told the lady at the MAC counter yesterday that I wanted the pressed blot powder. She gave me something else (Studio CareBlend or some crap like that) and I didn’t catch her mistake until I applied it and it went on heavy. When I get back to Texas, I’m going to give them a piece of my mind.
4. Mascara: Just black. Don’t have a favorite brand. I’m using a tube of MAC that I bought in a makeup binge years ago but never used. I won’t stay with the brand though, because I don’t want to spend $60 a year on mascara.
5. Eyeliner: using my Urban Decay brown pencil. They don’t make it anymore, but it’ll last a long time yet. I’ll worry about replacing it when it’s too short to hold.
6. L’Oreal lipstick in Fairest Nude: it matches my normal lip color, but applying it defines them better somehow. I’m not exactly sold on the sensation of wearing lipstick though.

This setup seems just about perfect to me. I don’t look made up at all, if I skip my eyes. I hate the way I look with a full load of makeup on, which I guess is only reasonable, since I’m not terribly fond of being looked at much at all.

New Year’s Resolutions

(Just so that I’m on the record somewhere…)

1. I will post something here every day.  Yes, maybe it’s just a reflection on the pooping habits of six month olds, or six month olds starting solids, or a reflection on mother’s obsession with the pooping habits of said six month olds (with or without solids).  And I don’t promise it’ll always be well written.  But it will be something.
2. Get just organized enough that we all always have clean socks, and not so organized that they are categorized by the day of the week.
3. Lose the rest of my pregnancy poundage.  (Funny, how similar-sounding poundage and bondage are, huh?)
4. Read more new books.  Usually I reach for a well read favorite (cost saving measure), but since I’m living with my folks, I might as well take advantage of it.
5. Learn something new.  It has to be something that challenges me, and can’t cost too much.  Crafting and cooking techniques are right out.

This may sound ambitious, but I’m only hoping for one of them to take.

Viewing Yourself From the Outside

I got myself in my email this morning.

And post-reading, I can say I already knew all this. The author doesn’t talk about how it’s possible to already know every bit of what she wrote, to know you’re being mildly crazy and too hard on yourself, to know and have it not make one damn bit of difference in how you feel.