Hi everyone!
I can't tell you how happy I am to be sitting on our patio this morning writing this blog post! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, I've just finished a cup of coffee while editing these photos ... spring is here and I am all for it!
Actually, we've had a couple of summer-like days this week! I know talking about the weather is cliche, but it genuinely has an effect on my mood & outlook. Sun = happy Jules. Cold = unhappy Jules. LOL.
Also! As you can see from these pics I've changed up my shooting location on our patio. There are two reasons for this, the first being that with the change in seasons the lighting wasn't as good in my old spot. The second is that we've put our patio furniture out, and it's kind of right in front of my old shooting spot! So I'm trying to figure out how to best shoot in this new spot, which is kind of backlit but also the sun is coming up on the left ... so please bear with me! I don't know why we have this huge rock on our patio either, I actually hate it but what can you do 🤷
(scroll down for more!)
Striped Fit and Flare Dress by
Gap (old,
similar)
Calf Hair Leopard Print Belt by
J.Crew (old,
similar)
My
J.Crew Factory order arrived and as you can see I'm wearing the
Scalloped Cami in Ivory. I also bought one in black, both in size 2, which I think is the correct size for me. I kind of wish they weren't racerback, but I looked at a lot of different versions of this kind of cami (
H&M, J.Crew, Aritzia), and this one had the best price point for the material/quality I was looking for. I'm also wearing a
headband I bought from there which you can't really see, in the last outfit. It's since sold out but they have a
similar, wider one at J.Crew.
Other than that, and the
ASOS order I'm waiting on, I haven't been doing much shopping. I had a bunch of things in my cart from
Gap and
Old Navy but I'm just not sure I
need any of those things, so I'm holding off for now. I would like a new pair of white jeans, and I've ordered and returned a bunch of pairs and am kind of feeling defeated by the whole ordeal, and then two weeks ago I was feeling like I needed a long sleeved midi dress or two for this weird in-between weather we were having. But now that it's warmed up I don't know if I need one anymore! (But what if it gets cold again?!) . LOL . Anyways, I am a very indecisive person so this type of 'leave it in the cart' for weeks behaviour is totally normal for me!
I was a bit annoyed last week by all of the
Sephora sale coverage but it ended up working (you win again,
Sephora!) and I bought the full size of the
Fresh Sugar lip balm in Rose,
this brush cleaner which I used for the first time last night and is great!,
this tubing mascara and a
mini size of this natural mascara. I'm hoping the brush cleaner will get me to wash my makeup brushes more regularly ... like every week. I was inspired by the
Indie Lee episode of Bad on Paper Podcast where she talks about cleaning her makeup brushes every Sunday as part of her "self-care" routine. I am totally a creature of habit, so if I can make cleaning my makeup brushes part of some sort of weekend routine then I'll probably stick with it!
Let's talk about the mascaras. Many months ago I asked for long-wear mascara recommendations on my
Instagram stories, as I was sick of having dark spots under the outer corners of my eyes by mid-day. A colleague of mind saw the story and brought me a bunch of mini-size mascaras that she'd received as 'gift with purchase'. This was right around the time that we went to
Costa Rica, so I brought them with me and kind of tried all of them, and they were great, but since the climate was so different and I wasn't wearing eyeliner I didn't feel like it was the best testing ground. Right when I got back, I saw a BuzzFeed article that I think
Grace linked about the best beauty products to buy on Amazon, and this
L'Oreal tubing mascara was listed. I clicked on over and it had great reviews, and one of the best things about tubing mascara is that it's formulated differently so it doesn't flake off. Colour me sold! Anyways, I went to my local
Shoppers and bought it and it's been working great! It took me a little while to get used to a more natural look for my eyes (I always wanted big, bold lashes before), but now I think it's totally fine/I'm used to it. But a couple of weeks ago, perhaps combined with allergies, my eyes started bothering me. Like there was something stuck in there that I couldn't get out. It would last all day until I took my makeup off. So one day I switched mascaras to see if that would make a difference, and it did! So that's the super long story of why I bought two new mascaras! LOL . I wore the
Blinc mascara yesterday and it went on a bit more wet than the
L'Oreal, probably because it doesn't have a primer (or maybe that's just the formula), which meant it I got a bit on my eyelids, and it was a bit harder to take off at the end of the night. But it lasted all day with no smudging or flaking, and it didn't bother my eyes. I'm going to try the
Ilia mascara today!
Did you get sucked into the
Sephora sale, too?! Share what you bought in the comments below!
As always, thank you so much for visiting! I hope you have great weekend :)
xo JULES