The Skeptics Guide to Liquid Liner

For so many years I thought I hated wearing liquid eyeliner. It was incredibly painstaking to apply, incredibly easy to accidentally ruin, and always felt so unpleasantly cold and wet on my eyelids until it dried. It was kind of a necessity for my ballroom competition makeup looks, so I choose to suck it up and deal until I discovered the gel pot liner and immediately made the switch. However, in the past 6 months or so, I've been re-introduced to liquid liner, this time in an amazing marker format that has managed to convert me back to the liquid forever.

Winter 2014 Drugstore Beauty Haul

Despite my uber strict budget, I'm surprisingly not so well-versed in the latest and greatest of the drugstore beauty world. With saavy shopping, gift cards, and of course, the occasional splurge, I've somehow managed to make the majority of my beauty purchases from prestige brands. While high-end beauty certainly has its perks, that's not to say that there aren't some true gems on the shelves at CVS. Realizing that it has been a long time since I'd gone treasure hunting, I clipped some coupons from the Sunday paper a few weekends ago and went shopping. I was really happy with my purchases, and thanks to the sales and my coupons, I was able to get all of these products (a $40 something value) for less than $25.

(I believe they call that winning.)

January 2014 Glambag

I'm not entirely sure why, but I feel like this particular review has been taking me forever to write. I think with all of this subscription box catch-up I've been in crazy product testing mode, to the point where I'm almost a bit overwhelmed. Alas, I've somehow managed to plow through and here it finally is - catch up post #4, my January 2014 Glambag review. I have mixed feelings about the products this month, ranging from absolute love, to neutral disinterest. Let's break it down.

Birdie Bites - Ricotta Gnocchi

Sunday afternoon.

The perfect time for cooking experiments.

Gnocchi is one of my favorite signature dishes to make, but I've always stuck to the traditional potato variety. While delicious, it can also be time consuming, and given my recent lazy streak, I was in no mood for doing any more work than absolutely necessary.

Thus, I decided to give ricotta gnocchi a try. They're a lighter version of their potato based cousins, and involve a little less prep work.

Everyday Makeup (February 2014)

For those of you who live outside of New England, you may be unaware of the wonderful wintertime weather that's graced our little corner of the universe in the past few months. Luckily we've managed to avoid (so far, anyway) a blizzard of last year's epic proportions, but have had quite a few nasty little snowstorms that have ruined evening plans and made commuting a general nightmare. This past Wednesday brought one of said snowstorms, which was bad enough to result in my having a legitimate snow day. In my adult life, such events are few and far between. I took advantage of my unexpected free time to finish a book, drink tea, and make some progress on the blog to-do list.