Beauty Thoughts II

First round of Beauty Thoughts can be found HERE. If you thought I was done spilling, guess again ha ha! Here's Round II...

1. I'm finally admitting that the thrill of the makeup chase is more exciting to me than actually using it. 

Bronzer Bunny and I have talked about this quite a bit, where we wonder why we buy so much makeup when we hardly wear it. I'm not sure when she realized it, but I remember texting with her not too long ago and she flat out said she liked buying makeup more than wearing it. At some point she said I was the same way, but I didn't put much thought into it until recently. And most notably the last few days. Not that we don't like wearing makeup - we love it!!! But we aren't wear-a-full-face-of-makeup-everyday kind of girls. I think we are good if we manage a few days a week. And even then it's probably not a full face. 

Anyway, she's totally right. I love reading reviews, watching videos about the products whether it's in a review, favorites, empties, disappointing products or whatever type of video. I love googling swatches and comparing them to each other and wondering which is closest to how a product might appear on my face. Sometimes I can't sleep because I'm thinking about how I could otherwise be reading more reviews or talking to other people about the products. Or I could be on Instagram looking at all the pictures from people who already have them. And there's the constant obsessing about how it'll fit into my current collection or not - oh, and will I like it more than that other thing? Oh, crap...am I going to need to purge again to make room or is there place for all of it?? See, it's a whole thing. A process!!

If something is LIMITED EDITION, I love the thrill of wondering if I need (and by need I mean want it enough) or not...oh, and then commiserating with fellow beauty lovers over the gorgeousness of said LIMITED EDITION product and whether or not they are going to get it. If I finally decide to get said LE product, then the chase is pretty thrilling and rather heart-pounding especially if I've been to several stores or sites and it's been sold out. Oh. My. God. And then there's the ultimate prize...I finally find the beautiful unicorn and it's mine...aaaaaall mine. I can pet it and marvel at it and bask in the magic and pretty, pretty colors and utterly amazing packaging.

Oh, and then there are the Gift With Purchase purchases. Sucker. I'm a total sucker. Throw in a cute little bag I'll never use and I'm totally hooked. Then I'm obsessing about what I don't need trying to justify the GWP. Such magic in those letters. G.W.P. Free shipping with that? Yes, please. Coupon for a future purchase, hell yeah. Chance I won't use most of the samples in the GWP - cloudy with a 90% chance they will end up in the giveaway pile. But it's FREEEEEEEEE!!! Get it??? I'm totally buying something I wasn't even thinking about before and not really even sure I want it now, but hello I'm getting something FREEEEEEE!!! 

And then I can imagine all the ways I'll wear all these things. Oh, it'll work this way and that! I was totally missing that color! Oh, I absolutely needed another taupe-leaning-mauve-leaning-brown-leaning-grey because guess what it actually ends up leaning oh-so-slightly-purpley-plum-charcoaly and is totally different than the one that ends up leaning charcoaly-plum with a hint of blue shimmer and the other one is matte so I totally needed THIS one!!! And anyway, so-and-so has it and I saw her swatches and they are GORG and she wears it with those 2 other things I already have so it's like it was tailor-made for my collection. 

Yep, that's me.

2. I REALLY, really, really dislike the brush on Chanel polishes. 

I realize something like this is completely personal preference, but seriously I can't do it anymore. And when I say I can't do it anymore, I mean I'll resist and resist until that one totally unicorn tear of a color comes along that is irresistible. And it's OOS everywhere. And it's is LE. Whoops, and there I've gone back on my word.

It's such a conundrum because I think Chanel does some beautiful and unique colors, but that brush :-(  For me, it's too long and floppy and skinny and it always messes me up somehow. And it's tough to get the right amount of polish on the brush because of the weird length...like I completely swipe polish off the one side and then it's too long to get the right amount on the other side...and then it's this struggle to get it out of the bottle and I end up with either too much or not enough polish. Too much is a problem. Not enough is a problem. Ugh.

Notice it's the brush's fault, not remotely user error ha ha! I feel like I get a smoother application with a wider brush, oh not to mention a wider, more substantial brush (like YSL's) gets the job done more quickly. Plus I rarely have the patience for 3 coats, and for some reason that darn too-skinny-too-floppy brush just makes things uneven in the weirdest way and I often feel I should do one more coat no matter the color. But generally that's not gonna happen. I came to this conclusion tonight while trying to paint my nails with Tutti Fruitti! 

3. Painting your nails well takes practice. Lots and lots of practice.

And by painting your nails well I mean by NOT painting them to look like I'm a 2 year old who's just learning how to color. Wait. Do 2 year olds color yet??!! Seriously, I don't know. Do they???

I would see all these bloggers and pics on Instagram of ladies who had immaculately painted nails and wonder, how the heck do they get them to look like they were done at a salon??? Surely there's got to be some tool, some trick, some Tom Foolery that I don't know about yet that will give me the same results. So I started asking these ladies, how do you do it?? They all had the same answer: PRACTICE. Ex-squeeze, me?? Practice?? Um, ok, whatever. I kept asking until I was assured there is no magic trick. There is no perfect nail painting gene. Seriously, it's practice. 

Riiiight. Still not convinced, I finally hunkered down and committed to painting my nails as often as possible. First time painting post commitment and the manicure didn't turn out very well. Hmmmpf. I scoured ULTA and Sephora looking for tools that might help get that perfectly clean line around the cuticle. Guess what. They helped, but nothing actually did the work for me. But by this time I had painted my nails quite a few times within the span of a couple of weeks, and guess what...it didn't look any better. KIDDING!!! 

I found I was getting slightly more speedy, and by that I mean I was shaving seconds off of my total manicure time. Hey, it adds up at some point! But the main thing was that my hands were less shaky and I was slowly starting to kinda get the hang of getting a clean line around my cuticles. At this point, I'm not going to be Deborah Lippmann anytime soon and I still need to keep at it. But my Physical Therapist always compliments me on how good my nails look -she even told someone the other day that my nails always look like I had them done at a salon! Helloooooo!!! Yeah, that's me!!! Progress, people...progress and PRACTICE!!! Yep, all those ladies were right! 

4. I've suddenly got a hankering for Chanel. Lots and lots of Chanel. 

Which might seem strange, given #2 above, but eh...   *shrugs shoulders*

I've always had an appreciation for Chanel beauty, but never really was that into it. There'd be products here and there that I liked and purchased, but the brand as a whole never grabbed me. Until now. And suddenly I want what seems like everything!! Except for polishes. Maybe.

For instance, I never glanced twice when the Les Beiges powders came out last year and suddenly I want to try one. I didn't give a thought to the Les Beiges Multi Colour powders, but now I want both colors. That compact - love the cream and I feel like I need one in my life! Blushes - sooooo many colors that look right up my alley! I bought items from the Fall collection and was really interested in checking them out even before they hit stores.  Not to mention a (cough) few of the new shadow quads. Oh, and the gorgeousness that is the Dentelle highlighter!! And now I can't wait to see what the next collection holds!! Help - who am I?!!!

Sooooo...written down I suppose it doesn't seem as bad as it has seemed in my head. But much of my time lately has been devoted to looking up Chanel swatches and reviews that I feel like I've got a Chanel tick or something. 'Cause I can't help it. 

LOL of course I can help it, but do you ever get like that about a brand, or perhaps a particular product where you are completely obsessed and overtaken by it??? Almost as if the obsession has a mind of its own??? It's crazy. Or I'm crazy. Or both!

5. I think that's enough for now :-) xo