I like things that come in black & white bags | Welcome Back (Haul)!

Hello my fellow makeup addicts! It has been a HOT MINUTE since I've last blogged. And let me tell you, I have missed it. This whole COVID thing has definitely impacted my makeup game. I think I've only worn makeup 3 times since the lockdown started in early-mid March. And I'm just starting to get back into it because the whole 'barely getting dressed and working out of my pjs for days' thing is starting to get to me. 

So what has been going on since I last wrote 9 months ago? If you follow my blog at all (which I know barely anyone does since my analytics tab tells me that I have about 2.5 followers and all my traffic is driven from Google search and some random link from Russia that I WILL NOT click on), you will know that I was traveling back-and-forth from California to Washington state pretty frequently. Like, every other weekend. There is a direct correlation between when I stopped blogging and the frequency that I was traveling. I was traveling all last Fall. Every. Single. Weekend. I flew to WA on Thursday nights, worked remotely on Friday and Monday, and then I'd fly back to CA on Monday night. Rinse and repeat. So this is about when I stopped blogging. I am truly sorry if you missed me.

BUT, I did get engaged! So at least I got a nice piece of jewelry for all my traveling efforts <3 It's a lovely, near perfect diamond, with smaller near perfect diamonds around 2/3 of the band. And the best part is, it goes with everything! All my clothes. All my makeup. It's the perfect accessory for a low maintenance girl like me.

Makeup-wise, I have bought nothing this entire time since quarantine. Well, almost nothing. I've restocked skincare and hair care, and I think I bought some lip gloss which makes no sense since we have to wear masks all the time, so why even bother wearing anything on our lips?! At least we should all be saving some money since lipstick and lip gloss and lip liner are useless to have right now. 

That being said, I did make my way over to my local Sephora in Bellevue last weekend, to FINALLY shop in store. I used my handy $20 off $100 (for two separate transactions, of course!), and then followed those purchases with an online order for the items that were not in stock in store. 

Can I just say how GOOD it felt to shop in an actual store?!

I picked up my favorite Caudalie hand and foot cream, which seems to always be OOS in stores. So that was lucky to find 2 tubes waiting for me on the shelves. Same with that BB Curl shampoo and conditioner from B&B, which has been OOS online for a good while (although I have seen it in other non-Sephora stores). 

I also picked up some of the new Limited Gold Edition items from Marc Jacobs, which I had considered buying since Marc Jacobs is one of my favorite beauty brands, but as I hadn't been wearing makeup I wasn't feeling too committed at the time. A friendly reminder that Marc Jacobs has the smoothest matte formula ever. Also, his Highliner Gel Eye Crayon Eyeliners are the best (I picked up 3 in total: Olive You, Top Brass, and Glittersweet). I also learned that many of his brands' items, like the skincare items, are being reformulated, so they are all on sale. 

Makeup aside, all the traveling caused me to forego any workout routine I once had, and in the process, lose muscle and gain weight. So, I've used this time to better myself by changing up my eating habits, and working out regularly. I'm just thankful I bought my elliptical machine a few weeks before lockdown. It literally was delivered about 3 weeks before everything shut down. Perfect timing! So long story short, all my money that was previously dedicated to makeup has been re-allocated into a) workout clothes and b) comfy work-from-home athleisure. IE, I've been spending a fair amount of dough at Lululemon. Don't worry Sephora, I've missed you a ton and you will never be replaced! I just want to be comfy while I WFH. You understand, right?

So what else is going on? I've officially moved to WA, but half my makeup is still in CA. So eventually I'll deal with getting all of that up here. We adopted 2 kitties. Atticus Biscuits is our brown-black tabby who we got at a shelter a week before quarantine in early-mid March. And Truffles, our Tortoiseshell kitten, who we adopted from a Foster the first week of July. They get along wonderfully, and Biscuits is super patient with the overly-energetic kitten. She also ADORES him. It's just precious.

I'm also changing things up and buying only Cruelty Free from now on. It's 2020, companies have had tons of time to change their contracts and business operations and blah blah. My feeling is, if they haven't done it by now, I have little confidence that they will anytime soon. So, any products you see in my pics that are not from CF brands, are old products from the time before I changed my ways. 

Stay safe, wear a mask, and thanks for reading! <3