Preaches n' Cream

My previous post is a pic of my houndstooth manicure. It was done using Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips. 

I LOVE THEM!!!

I’ve had so many compliments on my nails in the last few days, people are obsessed with houndstooth nails FYI.

They went on easily, I didn’t use a top coat (I wish I had of) and they stayed on for three days without chipping and only started to chip slightly on the fourth day. I bet if I had of used a top-coat they would have gone longer without chipping.

I’m working in retail right now, so all I do is fold, lift, open, count coins and wash my hands a million times a day. Nail polish doesn’t last half a day on my monkey paws; these lasting for a full three days is a miracle.

They’re a bit pricey ($10 for one set) so I’d probably save them for special occasions. But they’re very cool and I 100% recommend them.

Sometimes hair gets in a rut. I colour and cut my hair at the salon on a regular basis, use great hair products and pretty much obsess over my hair at all times.

All that attention and my hair still manages to turn out a bad hair day once in a while. Typically the reason for my bad hair days is that I’m due for a colour. The annoying thing about this is that my hair colour usually looks fine, towards the 5 week point it has lightened and has a bit of that ombre effect.

It’s the texture that’s off. Colouring hair gives hair great texture and shine. I’m in hair heaven during that first week of a fresh colour. So when I saw L’oreal Shine Gloss which basically boasts salon colour results without changing your hair colour I was very intrigued. 

I bought it for about $14 at Shoppers Drug Mart and gave it a try. It was easy to use: put on hair, wait 10 minutes, wash out. 

Afterwards I gave myself a blow out and set my hair in velcro rollers.  

My hair felt a bit softer and a bit shinier, not the most impressive results, but I was thinking that if I saw this stuff on sale for like $6 I might buy it again. 

From there things turned to worse, my hair became too soft and therefore impossible to style. The more I tried the more staticky it got. My hair has not been staticky since grade 3 and turtlenecks. 

So now, even if I saw it for sale I would not buy it or recommend it. The results were minimal, and $14 for a one time use is expensive…Just double that price and buy a good deep conditioner that’ll last 6 months (if used once a week).

• One idea to keep your hair looking salon fresh is to stagger your cuts and colours. Instead of getting your hair coloured and cut at the same time, try to get your hair cut and schedule your colours in-between your next cut. This way your hair is always changing and getting freshened up; when you do it all at once it all wilts (the colour and cut) at the same time.

Maybe it’s the new retail gig I’m doing that has me thinking Christmas: on November first they unveiled their big Christmas extravaganza windows and today in the store the decorating team (?) were wheeling Christmas trees around to start decking the halls. I actually told one of the guys to wheel his Christmas tree back into the stockroom and not to bring it back until December 22nd (When I’m usually ready to start shopping for gifts).

I’m pretty cool when it comes to gift giving, my gift is typically the gift of “I don’t give you a gift, you don’t have to get me a gift”, it’s the gift of time and money. I like to gift give if and when I want to; if I see something for someone that I know they’ll love, I’ll get it. Alternately, if I can’t find something that the person will truly love, then they don’t get a gift. I just don’t see the point in spending $$$ on junk.

This year I want to do all my Christmas shopping on Etsy and I want to do the entire holiday’s gifts for under $100.  

Here are some ideas that I’ve come up with:

Custom Family Tree (for a new mom, old mom, a gift for a family):

Antler Art (for a boyfriend, brother, dad…any boy):

Some more art (For a colleague, brother, boyfriend, dad…again with the boy gifts):

Apron (This one is crazy over the top and I LOVE it! One like this or a subtler style is a great gift for a sister, cousin, mom, friend…ME):

Another idea is trying to make your own gifts; you can look to Etsy for inspiration or cool places like The Knit Cafe   or The Work Room where they’ll teach you to knit or sew a little project. In which case it’s good that I’m bringing Christmas gifts up so early, to give you time to learn to knit and sew.

I guess the title says it all but I shall expand even more anyways.

I bought Lancome’s Doll Lashes mascara about two weeks ago. The purchase was against my better judgement, because I truly love Armani’s Eyes To Kill, I’ve even reviewed it on preaches n’ cream before, (see the review here ). But I was in the mall and felt too lazy to haul my butt to Yorkville and visit Holt’s, so I bought Doll Lashes.

At first it’s nice, for a good week I thought it was amazing. Then everything went wrong, so wrong. It started clumping and then flaking. The last three times I’ve worn it, it’s completely flaked off and given me major raccoon eyes. So gross, I hate it, raccoon eyes are the WORST.

I will be returning my tube tomorrow sans receipt, sans original packaging, and taking my $$ to Holt’s for my beloved Armani “Eyes To Kill”.

Last week I was a volunteer dresser for Toronto’s LG Fashion Week. I took advice from many of my classmates to volunteer at least once for this event and I took a specific directive from a previous volunteer to be a dresser, because it would get me closest to the fashion and the action.

It was a fun experience and if you’re even remotely interested in fashion you’d enjoy volunteering for this event. I met lots of ladies and a few men with similar fashion interests and career goals as mine and it’s not too far fetched to assume that I’ll even be working with some of them in the future.

I met one girl from England who is travelling the world and trying to volunteer at an event at almost every city she stops in, I thought that was amazing!

Backstage dressing is fast paced, you have to have all the clothes ready to go so the model can change quickly and get back out on the runway. Afterwards you have to quickly pack everything up  and out so the next designer can get backstage and get their show ready.

A few things I learned about models:

• They really are super gorgeous.
• They are hardcore: The backstage tents were FREEZING and the models were stripping down and putting on light and airy Spring 2012 frocks. I had 3 layers on, a hat, a scarf, 3 to 7 more layers of fat and I was having to bite my tongue the whole time about being cold.
• They are hardcore part 2: The shoes! Some of the shoes they had to wear were painful to look at and some of the girls feet were so messed up (cuts, bruises, future bunions). I’m a seasoned heel veteran and all I can say is, Ouch! I feel it for you sister.

My favorite experience of the week was to dress for was the Arthur Mendonca show. The clothing was truly gorgeous and he and his entourage were very well organized, creative, classy and really nice to the volunteers. It gave me a whole new level of appreciation for the line….Arthur, WHEN I’m rich I’m gonna buy your clothes. 

Below are some of the looks that I got to dress throughout the week: 

From the Holt Renfrew Show, TwentyCluny  &  Lida Baday