Nameless Borghese

Did you know that Borghese means middle-class in English? Well, you must be smarter than me because I surely didn't. I had to babelfish it.

If you're thinking, my my, her hands look grubby, you're totally right. I've been having a stressful few days and my cuticles always get the worst of it when that happens. Poor, bloody and dry cuticles. Nail polish usually help because then I don't want to ruin it by picking at my nails. And to add, I grated my knuckles. 

This polish doesn't have a name on the bottle. But it's a gorgeous iridescent red with a hint of pink in it. I can see myself wearing this many times. Have you noticed I'm biased toward reds yet?

Two Dollar Haul

I got lucky at the Shoppers Drug Mart yesterday.

Each of these were $2... needless to say, I went a bit nuts. I could have gotten more, in my defense.

A few products I'm trying out at the moment...

Cover FX Matte Foundation Primer & Anti-Acne Treatment - I don't know how I feel about this guy yet. It does help my skin look smoother before foundation but I don't see a huge difference in staying power. I kind of feel better putting that one considering it's supposed to help acne. I heard about this product from Glitter Geek here. The price of this tiny little bottle is outrageous - $20 CAD and very little product. I probably won't repurchase unless I see a miracle happen.

MAC 217 - I don't know how I did my makeup before that brush. Plain and simple. I love it. I use it daily. I highly recommend the brush to anyone who is starting out in makeup. It will make things much easier. However, if you have very little eyelid space, this might not be for you as the brush might be a bit too big. It's dirty in the picture, sorry.

Urban Decay 24/7 Eye Pencil in Covet - To be honest, I'm disappointed in this product. I got it in a blog sale (along with Electric - which is going to my sister, Lucky and Lust). Maybe it's just because I'm not used to the extremely creamy eyeliners but I find this so hard to apply. I'm used to MAC liners (not the automatic ones) or Estee Lauder liners which are harder. I'm not writing this product off yet - I'm still testing it. Maybe I'll like them better as an eyeshadow base?

MAC Eyeshadow in Hush - Again, blog sale purchase (what a wonder those are!). This shadow was a surprise. I didn't expect to like it from looking in the pan but it has a gorgeous duochrome. I'll call it a mini-duochrome because it's not that visible. But it's a peachy, pinky, beige-ish shade. Great for the inner eye corner as well as all over the lid as base wash. I find it brightens up the eye area beautifully.

MAC Brush Cleaner - I'm happily surprised by this product. All the reviews I've read said that it uses up fast. I've had it for a few months and it's only a quarter down. Maybe it's the way I use it - I don't dip my brushes (I'll wash them with soap if they need serious cleaning) but I use it for spot cleaning brushes. Or when I need the same brush but a different eyeshadow color. It smells good, cleans well and dries fast. Bravo MAC Brush Cleaner - I'll be repurchasing you!

The Non-Profit World

You may not know this about me but I work for a non-profit organization. I've worked for non-profits pretty much all my university years as well as the two years after graduations.

I love working for non-profits. I love the scrappiness of it - the "I'll bring scissors from home from the office" or the "I'll bake some cookies for this event" or even "don't worry about it, I'll help out with that". I love the thank yous, the pats on the back for hard work, and the feeling of self worth when you see the end results.

The current job I hold is nothing like that. I work for a non-profit (provincial) that helps individuals with intellectual disability.  However, because I hold a support staff position, it is made clear to me that my position isn't as important. When I got the job here, I was proud that I was doing a small difference in the world by working for such a good cause. There is no way any staff here makes me feel like what I'm doing makes any difference at all.

As I'm writing this (yes, at work, bad bad me) I am asked to clean up the board room after the board meeting downstairs. Our own board members are not capable of cleaning up their own dishes after they are being fed like kings by one of the most expensive catering company in town.

I don't understand how a feeling of cooperation and helpfulness isn't happening in a non-profit organization such as ours. Especially given the goal of the organization. We strive to help individuals with intellectual disabilities find homes of their own, jobs, and have the choice of education. But somehow, because I'm only a support staff person, and I don't work with individuals personally, I'm treated as though I'm lower. I'm lower because I assist the executive director (mostly make her coffee, get her water from the cooler downstairs because she is too important for tap water), I'm lower because I'm the one who cleans up after meetings, I'm lower because I'm the only one who runs errands in the office, and lastly, I'm lower because I'm the only one who drops off the mail. I am almost never thanked me for doing something. Mostly because people here this is part of my "job description".

What bothers me the most is that there's a hierarchy here. And I am clearly the lowest one on the ladder. And this is an organization helping to better the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities on par with ours. My work life isn't on par with the higher up positions in the association.

The spending of the organization has baffled me in my time here. Feasts are ordered for meetings rather than employees bringing their own lunch from home. Money is spent liberally on office supplies. We get services like carpets in our offices being changed every week, water being delivered to us every week, a Smartboard we never use and employees who flat out refuse to use it even though they have attended training for it, incredibly expensive day planners, and events that are too expensive for the profit. These are all things that if I were to make a sizable donation to the organization, I'd like to know - I'd most likely not make the donation.

Needless to say, I'm looking for another job. I have never worked for a non-profit that thinks of themselves as a government organization. Even government lead departments do not spend like this. My friend works for one and she says they do not spend as we do.

The other day, we had a hard time finding $100 for an individual in our funding. We had a hard time finding money for a self advocate when WE are spending thousands on food every two weeks. I'm ashamed. My time here will hopefully be done soon.

Yes, I am dedicated.

And my dedication as a blogger is proven by this picture taken at 8 am. I am NOT a morning person. I barely function in the mornings until I have some coffee.

I'm glad I took the picture when I did because the polish chipped right after. It's Laura Mercier's Daring, but I really don't think it's a "daring" polish. I really really like it though. I had a formal event to attend and this was a great color for it. It's a dark red. I wouldn't call it vampy though. It's more of a wine color. Really pretty but it unfortunately didn't stay on very long. And for you Canadians out there, I found it at Winners. They don't even sell Laura Mercier where I live.

Oh and I used CND Sticky base coat and Seche Vite as a top coat pretty much always.

Go Goth OPI - Unripened

What a strange name for a polish. I'm not sure I like it. Skeevy.

You probably can't tell but it doesn't look like the polish looks in the bottle. The bottle has multicolor small glitter. The nails have blueish glitter on a black base. Kinda disappointing. Go Goth only has a winner so far and that's Nevermore AKA Ink.

I think I'm going to go back to my classic red colors. I enjoy wearing them much more.

5 Favorite MAC eyeshadows... so far.

I'm home sick with a cold. What better way to spend the day than blogging.

Yesterday, I discovered the MAC eyeshadow Texture. I never ever though that an orange tinted brown would be my thing but I was completely wrong. It brings out my eyecolor so much but you can't see it in the picture.

My eye isn't actually that droppy. But here I've used Texture on the lid, Mulch in the crease and outer corner, Coffee eye pencil on the waterline and Powersurge on the undereye. Oh and I can't remember which mascara - it's either Rimmel Sexy Curves or Maybelline Collosal.

Anyway, in no particular order:

Texture:

It's a beautiful brown-orange shadow that's extremely easy to blend. I got it from a blog sale (pretty much only because it was cheap) and was like, meh, when I saw it. I decided to try it on my lid the other day and totally fell in love. For you blue-eyed girls, this is a shadow for you. I love blending it with a warmer brown toned shadow. Gorgeous!

Satin Taupe:

I had to put this shadow in here. It totally lives up to the hype in my opinion. It's a taupey, shimmery shade with some plum in it. I love it. It's so easy to do a smokey eye with this shadow. If I'm in a hurry, I'll put this all over the lid and line my eyes with a black eye pencil. Super simple and really sexy. The only downside to this shadow is that I feel like the intensity disappears during the day, even with a base.

Club:

People either love this shadow or hate it. I personally love it. It's a dark cool brown shade with green duochrome. I'm not a fan of green shadow at all but this eyeshadow is an exception. It's so easy to use but can blend a little patchy if you're not careful. I often use this on its own with a black eye pencil. You can basically only see green in the picture but trust me, it's also brown. My friend who has green eyes swears by this shadow - it looks great on her.

Mulch:

This shadow is one of my go to for the crease and outer corner. It's a gorgeous shimmery dark brown shade. I prefer it to Bronze because it's more intense. Again, blue-eyed girls, you need this.

And lastly, Patina:

Patina is stunning. And I find the picture represents the colors well - a light neutral brown with shimmer. It's excellent as a lid color and it pairs up with pretty much any crease/outer corner colors. I love this shade for a natural look.

Swatches:

From left to right: Texture, Patina, Mulch, Satin Taupe and Club (you can't really see much of the duochrome, sorry).

So these are my 5 favorite shades of the moment - they often switch around. I have a few others that I like including Handwritten, Omega, Shale... And I'm sure I'll be discovering other shades as well! I'm currently trying to get my hands on Magnetic Fields. Seems like a color I'd like based on my favorites eh?

Rant of the day:
Does anyone else find religious decorations in the workplace offensive? I grew up Catholic so I'm familiar with Easter and all that. But I find that decorations for holidays in the workplace isn't appropriate. You can't assume that everyone in the office celebrates the holiday you celebrate. What if I were Jewish and I didn't want to see all the Christmas decorations around my workplace? I don't like the fact of imposing religious holidays. It bothers me. Plus, Easter bunnies and baskets are tacky. But that's just me whining about a mustached woman at my work whom I do not like.

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter

Billie picture of the day.

I was washing my sheets. I couldn't find her for a while and I ended up finding her in my duvet cover. Twas a warm nap for her!

Billie was super brave at the vet today. She didn't like the car ride but seemed to enjoy herself around the vet office. She didn't even flinch for two of her shots. The last one hurt though - poor Billie.

The title of the post is from the T.S. Eliot poem "The Naming of Cats". He had lots of cats apparently.

Makeup Never Sleeps: Saturday Night Serenade

 Just want to make a tiny post on how FULL OF JOY I was falling on this post in a beauty blog. I love Radiohead. This absolutely made my day.

Makeup Never Sleeps: Saturday Night Serenade:

It's good to know that there are other beauty bloggers out there like me!

Moolah, the bane of a shopaholic

Now, I'm sure some of you are in the same boat as me. You're a blogger. You're just out of school AKA poor as shit. You can't afford to buy endless streams of products and blog about them - it's just an impossibility.

Here's why I'll make you the solemn vow that I will never buy a whole collection and review about it. Here you'll find detailed reviews about, mostly, a single product. But I think the advantage here is that you'll find some really good recommendations.

For example, I read about this lipstick on Makeup Morsels (thank you!) and bought it based on the recommendation. link to Makeup Morsel's post

I can tell you right now, because of her excellent and well written review, the Rouge Hydra Nude (shade 01) it did not disappoint. It has quickly become one of my favorite lipsticks ever. It's creamy, it smells delicious, it's moisturizing, did I mention the smell - it's complete yum. And the packaging...

Pretty right? Feels way more glamorous than putting on MAC lipstick. And this actually stays on the lips for a while. This is truly a "my lips but better shade". It might not be for you though - my lips are not pigmented at all!

Hope this was helpful and gave you an idea of what the blog will be about. If you have any ideas on a specific product you'd like reviewed, please do not hesitate. I have limited access to some brands here but I'll make sure to do my best to get my mitts on the right stuff (The Right Stuff, that was an excellent movie wasn't it? Sam Shepard is sexay).

Cheers and until next time!

Joe Fresh again - Eggplant!

Here's Joe Fresh Eggplant.

I'm not really impressed by this polish. Does this look like eggplant to you? And weirdly enough, it did look like eggplant in the bottle. But on the nail it's just a flat grey with barely any mauve in it. Kinda boring. I like my Revlon Cloud better.

And this polish has lasted not as long as Twilight. It chipped in a couple days. But maybe it's because I was rough on my nail - I may have scratched things in order to get my cat to look at me while I was taking pictures. Which failed - she has a mind of her own.

Billie is going on her first vet trip tomorrow! I'm so nervous. I don't want them to find anything wrong with her - even if she's just going for an update on her shots.

This is Arsene, my cat from back home. He's such a big and CHILL cat. That cat is not bothered by anything, or anyone. Except when you pull the hair beneath his paws. He doesn't like that.

I may get to foster some kittens as well so be prepared for adorable kitten shots! Until next time! More reviews on some MAC eyeshadows, Clarins new spring lippies and some OPI nailpolishes!

Rave

I'm absolutely loving Joe Fresh nailpolish. I just tried another one today (Eggplant) and honestly, they're competing with the likes of Essie and China Glaze. Except they last longer than China Glaze in my experience. Pictures will be up soon.

Also, have you heard the new Radiohead album? As a die-hard fan, I'm a bit muffed by their new album. It sounds exactly like In Rainbows. However, I've fallen in love with Lotus Flower - such a stunning song. And I don't even like flowers!

I saw this beautiful wedding dress walking downtown today. I can't wait to be wearing one. Why do you have to be getting married or going to a prom to wear a gown? That's why I should totally be a celebrity - I promise I would use the "gown privileges" wisely, Oh Oscar Gods, and wear something you'll approve of and skip the swan/red strapless boringness/or black plunging neckline.

Oh and on an awesome coincidence tangent, I found a pair of J Brand jeggings today for 50 bucks! Amazing! They're a bit too big but I don't love the skin tight thing anyway.

Until next time, with pictures.

Meanwhile:

Twilight!

Here is the coveted polish.

Kewl right? It was extremely hard to photograph as some angles gives dark green reflects, others are light green/yellow. It's a strange polish.

If you're in Canada, definitely worth picking up at Superstore.

I just got my first bronzer called Nars Laguna. I find it doesn't show up very much on my skintone. I'm not sure I'm doing it the right way either. I'll post pictures of it at a later date.

Here's my Billie enjoying a bit of sun we got this week. She was so excited - she was running around the place, making funny noises. It was great to see!

Asian Unicorns

How cool is this?

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/17/laos.asian.unicorn.saola/index.html?iref=obinsite

How crazy is it that we're still on the hunt for species we're not even sure exists! Poor creature though - being kept in captivity like that. It looks in rough shape in the picture.

Here's my little muffin of love. We call her "the bitch" because she's a really spastic cat. She's very noisy too. Often at around 5am when I still have a couple hours left of sleep. Hence "the bitch" moniker.

She even poops just for you when you come visit. Seriously, every time someone comes and visits, she poops. And since I have a small apartment, and the little box is in the living room, and she's quite stinky, it's pretty unbearable. I'm sure you'll hear a lot about her in this blog.

In other news, my nails are wearing Nevermore by OPI from the Go Goth collection. I picked the mini set at a local hair salon - which was a pretty random thing to have in stock since it came out a year ago.

Excuse the cuticles. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a hardcore cuticle picker. I can't help it. It was hard to photograph this color - it's more blue in some light and purple in others. I hear it's the same as OPI Ink.

Next will be this little gem of Joe Fresh Twilight. I hate the Twilight saga/movies/books with a passion and I find it really hard not to think of it when I look at this polish. Almost impossible. But the color seemed worth it I suppose and it made it's way home from Superstore with me.

Flakies!

Just came back from seeing The Adjustment Bureau. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting honestly. And who can resist John Slattery. That man is handsome! And he may be way to old for me but he's on my list. Only if he's not a smoker in real life unlike his character in Mad Men. Smoky men is ew.

Until next time, peace out.

for the sake of the small little things

Hi All,

I'm Annie and I love a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Some things you will see on this blog
- nail polish colors
- my cat Billie
- movie reviews
- bitch & moan sessions
- cooking!
- new makeup purchases

Bottom line, you will hear about the things that I love, hate and the little things in life that make me happy. I've also given myself the goal of taking more pictures - you'll be able to witness these as well.

Thanks and see you on my next post!