BEGINNING MAKEUP REHAB

At the start of the new year I set a goal for myself to cut back on consumerism. In early December I purchased a new vanity as my makeup collection had outgrown my set up at the time. By the end of the month the even the new organization system couldn't accommodate it. That's when I realized how out of control my collection was. It was rare for me to go to the store without coming back with a new product to test. Since early High School, I have been sent products to test from brands in exchange for review. I've also had a plethora of subscription boxes over time which all adds up. I love reviewing which is why I've been so drawn to the excess. Repurchasing makeup is rare for me because even if I love something, I feel the need to try a new product so I have more in my arsenal of comparisons. Items like eyeshadow and lipstick make sense for me to have a wide variety of, as my look varies from day to day. Foundation and other base products are a lot less justifiable. I had about 25 bottles of foundation sitting in my drawer at the start of the new year. I only liked about 5 of them and the other 20 just sat there. I knew I needed to make a change. I've been watching beauty gurus since 2006 and I feel like I've bought into the youtube mentality too much. I'm discovering this more is more mantra is deeply flawed. Having a ton of products is not better than having a select few you love. This may seem quite obvious to some, but to those of us with a stack of palettes all with the same shades it may be a bit harder to recognize. I'm not trying to insinuate that this makeup "addiction" is as serious as subsistence abuse, but the name of this potential series is pulled from a subreddit I've been frequenting throughout this process. I felt the need to clarify that.

ZOEVA COMPLETE ROSE GOLD BRUSH SET | REVIEW

This year I got an amazing albeit unexpected gift from my sister. She had searched through my instagram looking for Christmas ideas because as I have learned, I am a disaster to get gifts for. She came across a post I made over a year ago about a Zoeva brush set and overtly checked my collection to ensure I had yet to purchase them. My eye had been on the rose gold eye set but she went beyond that and got me the complete volume 1 set. The set is a mix of synthetic taklon hair and natural bristles.  These are my first ever natural hair brushes, as I try look for vegan alternatives, so I have little to compare them to. The set as a whole is diverse and for my first week with them I challenged myself to only use these brushes along side a spoolie because I can't do my brows without. I must say it was a massive success. Although these are high end, I do believe they are worth the investment. If you want high quality staples in your collection I think Zoeva is a good place to start.

UDXGWEN STEFANI EYESHADOW PALETTE | REVIEW

Growing up I was a big fan of Gwen Stefani. I had always loved No Doubt but when she broke off to do her solo album "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." I became obsessed. I only wore G perfume and rocked my Harajuku Lovers brand purse and high tops on the regular. I've since come to realize how odd her whole Harajuku phase was and in particular her song "Harajuku Girls." Needless to say, my love for her has faded. I do love her style though and the packing of the line is straight out of my dreams. The palette was designed by Gwen Stefani and the colours are what she actually wears. This is a 15 shadow palette that retails $58 available at Ulta, Sephora and Macy's. 12 out of the 15 shades are exclusive to this palette. She usually keeps her makeup pretty neutral with a bold red lip and her line delivers just that. Most of the items seem to really only cater to someone with Gwen's skintone. The blushes are very fair with a few exceptions, some shadows may only show up on light skin tones and the brow box only comes in her blonde shade. I really think this collection works for those with fair to light medium skintones. Everyone else seems to be out of luck. I'm ghostly so I figured this would be the palette made for me, but after having it for almost a month I have a lot of mixed feelings.

THE PRODUCT THAT GOT RID OF MY ACNE

I have had acne since 2004. I feel like I've tried nearly every product and method for clearing my skin with little to no success. I've used proactiv, epiduo, a ridiculous amount of drugstore acne kits, all natural products, harsh cleansers, gentle cleaners, diy recipes, raw african black soap, oil cleansing and even just plain old water. A little over a year ago I discovered the SkincareAddiction subreddit and it changed my life. There was a slew of posts on there documenting their success with Curology (then named PocketDerm). Before I rave about it know that I am not sponsored. I just absolutely love this. I went from having a face covered in acne to about 1-4 active breakouts at the worst and only some discoloration. I never thought my skin would be this clear. Curology offers the first month completely free if you have a referral link and you're able to cancel any time. If you want to try it for free use: https://curology.com/invite/ASNXSEH

TOP 15 OF 2015

I feel like 2015 has taken forever to pass. In that time I have found products I might very well use for the rest of my life. This has been one of the best years for beauty for me. I tried to add a little bit of everything to this list. I even put all my top pick in a basket and tried to go without them. Every one of these were out the basket within the first few days.

Sephora Draw The Line | Review

I get so excited every year when new holiday kits start coming out.  There's usually quite a few brands I keep an eye on around this time, but nothing gets me quite as excited as the "Sephora Favorites." These offer the most popular products from high-end brands at a huge discount. It's rare that any other brand puts out kits with a better bang for your buck. I went on the website to repurchase my all time favourite liner Stila's Smudge Stick (as seen in my Top 5 Makeup Products) which retails for $22 but came across the Draw The Line sampler which included the same full-sized liner along with 5 other products for only $8 more, so I decided to give that a go instead. Aside from the Stila liner, the only other product I had tried was the Urban Decay liner so I was excited to play with some new products. There's not much variety with one brown, one purple and four black liners but it is practical. The kit contains 3 full size and 3 deluxe size products and retails for $30 with an estimated $88 value.

Monthly Faves | August

August has been a very laid back month for me. Most days I decided to slap on BB cream, mascara, brows and leave it at that. When I did put in a little extra effort, I wanted quick easy makeup that still made a statement. These products have been in constant rotation this past month and for good reason.

MONTHLY FAVES | OCTOBER

October is my favourite month of the year. I'm still reluctant to take my Halloween decorations down because I want it to be spooky season forever. Nothing breaks me out of a makeup funk like Halloween makeup. I just get so inspired and want to play with all sorts of colours. We get to see Holiday collections roll out. October is truly a magical month, but it's gone now. I did play with a lot more products than usual, but there we're some that stood above the rest.

Colourpop Ultra Matte Lips | Review

Colourpop is one of those weird brands that if you're into the online beauty community everyone knows about it, but the general population has never heard of it. I have super mixed feelings towards the brand. They came into existence, sent every beauty blogger on the planet their products and suddenly blew up. When I first tried their products I made a video about them (watch here) and have since ordered a few more times but my feelings towards their super shock shadows and "lippie" products remain the same. Since I've had decent luck with their lip products I was excited for their liquid lipstick release. I was on the website as they released but was still unable to get a hold of them as their site kept crashing, thus I had to wait for their re-release in August. One thing you need to understand before ordering, their shipping sucks. Despite them being based in LA they take at least 2 weeks to ship to me every single time I've ordered and even longer if there's been a new release. They are cruelty free and most of their products are vegan (list of non-vegan items here) so that's a huge selling point to me.

Lime Crime Scandals & My Experience

This post is going to be more serious than most because I've had a lot of people ask me what's going on with Lime Crime. I'm going to talk about my experience and the experiences others have had. I cannot prove or validate the experiences that have been shared by others because they are not my own, so take that as you will.

BEAUTEQUE MASK MAVEN BAG | NOVEMBER

I'm finally back from my break to talk about one of my most used beauty products; face masks. I am no stranger to Asian beauty products. I've tested out more strange ampoules, essences and gels than I care to admit.  One of my favourite things I've found while on this journey has been sheet masks. They have ruined American face masks for me. I can't help but scoff when I see the sheet masks at Sephora selling for $6 a pop, when you can get high quality ones for only $2 from a Korean brand. It's amazing to me just how many of our beauty trends come from the Asian beauty market. That all being said, I couldn't pass up a subscription bag based around Asian beauty products.

FRONKOREO RETURNS

I feel like I owe people this post after leaving this blog untouched for two months unannounced. I didn't mean for it to happen, but it did. I had tried three times during that break to write a post similar to this but every time I ended up shutting laptop and curling into a ball part of the way through. I'm a very open person, but that doesn't mean I'm comfortable with being vulnerable. Over the past few years I've started talking more about my struggle with depression because I think it's important. That doesn't mean it's easy. I haven't been in the right head space to post about makeup, music or much of anything for awhile. If you look at previous post dates you can see the time between them slowly start to grow. When I'm low everything feels more difficult. I end up being so exhausted by the mental war going on inside that I have to start being very careful about what tasks I choose to do because everything drains me. There's not always a reason for it either. I'm not looking for pity, I just want understanding.

Top 5 Makeup Products

Hey Guys! I've finally put a blog together after all of this time and thought what would be a more appropriate first post than my favourite products? When I say favourite I mean the loves of my life. I don't know what I did prior to discovering this beauties. I feel like all of these products would work well for an array of people and have transitioned from season to season with ease so they'll be perfect no matter the weather in your area.

DIY Ingredients to Avoid

I used be really into natural skincare and I felt like I had a recipe for everything. I've always been a fan of making my own beauty products. I've made cleansers, moisturizers, toners, masks, treatments, etc. You name it, I've probably tried it. Now with the help of Pinterest these DIY skincare recipes are everywhere. I've taken a lot of time researching and learning about the science behind skincare and in doing so, I've figured out why some things just never worked for me. I cringe whenever I log on Facebook and see someone sharing a Buzzfeed style video of a DIY skincare recipe filled to the brim with irritating and potentially harmful ingredients. Hopefully, I can give some basic guidelines on things to avoid that could save your skin.