January was a great reading month for me. For someone who loves reading, I don't like starting new books and I found that jumping right into the next book was a great way to keep the momentum up. I will have full reviews posted on my Book Blog Mrs Q Book Addict but I will keep my monthly wrap ups here.

The Other Daughter by Lauren Willig.
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Source: Library
Released: 2015
Book Thoughts: The Other Daughter was an interesting read that kept me reading. The plot flowed very well and the characters were engaging. The story opens with Rachel working as a governess and recieving a letter that her mother is very sick and she must return to England immediately. When Rachel arrives home she finds out very quickly that her mother has passed away. Reeling from her mother's death, she finds a photo in a newspaper that resembles her father. The problem, her father is dead...Rachel is an only child who is now without a family. Could her father be alive? Could he be an Earl? She vows to figure out the secrets that need to be uncovered.

Without Merit by Colleen Hoover
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Source: Library
Released: 2017
Book Thoughts: Colleen Hoover is a great writer and each of her books are unique and hold their own. She does not follow a formula that can be expected in her next book. Without Merit follows a teenager named Merit who is on a slippery path. Her family life is dysfunctional and her relationships with her siblings in almost non existent. This book really makes you question the idea of perception and how you think you see something until someone forces you to see a different perspective. Merit is a likable character, and as a reader you really want her to do better. You want her to succeed. Of all the Colleen Hoover books I read, this wasn't my favorite. It was good, but I've really outgrown the Young Adult genre. I can't really relate anymore.

The Pocket Wife by Susan Crawford
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Source: Personal Library
Released: 2015
Books Thoughts: This psychological thriller has been on my ereader since it released and I finally decided to give it a try. I don't read alot of thrillers but I'm trying to branch out in my reading. Dana wakes up from an drunken afternoon to discover her neighbor and sometimes friend has been murdered. Dana doesn't have much memory of the afternoon but she does know she had a few drinks with Celia. Dana becomes worried that she might have done some thing wrong. Dana is such an unreliable character that you really don't know what to think. It wasn't predictable and I highly recommend.

The Morphe 15N (Night Master) palette was released as a holiday collection with Morphe. I'm a huge fan of their palettes, and couldn't wait to start using these shadows. It is currently sold out, but the 15D Day Slayer is still available through Morphe. This palette claimed to help create a perfect evening look while the 15D was a more "day" appropriate palette. I use both for every day looks. How often am I going out in the evening? not much...lol

This palette has a mix of shimmer and matte shades and it is housed in a very nice hard plastic case with a great quality mirror. The newer packaging feels nice and looks even nicer. It also has a nice weight to the palette. I would make a great travel companion.

I had no issues using this palette the mattes build and blend very well. You can create a complete look with this palette. It also includes a pale color to set your eye primer. The shimmers are shimmers, and you will have to foil them if you want a more metallic look. Many of Morphe's metallic shades in other palettes are chunky, but these are not. I will say that this palette didn't swatch very well for me, but the shades do perform really well on the eyes. I have no issues with lasting power or pigmentation. Between the two, I prefer the 15D because has all the orange shades I love.

Last week I tried some new palettes, and pulled out some older face palettes that I really enjoy using. My weekly rotations give me a chance to use up different products otherwise, I would forget about them. This wasn't intentional, but these products are all very affordable. Here is what I used last week:

Makeup Revolution Pro Glow Palette: This palette is always a "go to" highlighter palette for me. It has great highlight shades that can be built up and I like to mix and match shades. Some of the shades are too dark for me, but I could always use them as eyeshadow. This is a great every day palette to wear to work. (Purchase*)

Morphe 15D (Day Slayer) Palette: This was a Christmas gift and you know I love Morphe products. It has a mix of matte and shimmer shades. I love the warmth of the palette. If you like the Morphe 35o, this palette will be for you. I love that it has quite a few shimmer lid shades to pair with the mattes. The packaging is hard plastic and it has a mirror which is different from the Morphe palettes in the past. I really do like this palette. I will have a full review coming. This is limited edition but still available through Morphe. (Purchase*)

Let's chat! January is almost over and I've been secretly working on some resolutions. I didn't write a post about my resolutions but I thought I would set some goals and see how it goes. I'm a very goal oriented person and I'm always looking to improve myself. One of the goals I set for myself was to make reading a priority again. I don't watch alot of TV, when I do I'm watching with my husband. I do watch quite a bit of Youtube and I felt like my interests weren't balanced. Yes, I love makeup, my blog and the beauty community but that's not all I enjoy. I thought reading needs to be put back into my routine. I've been doing really well. I've read 4 books, and I'm almost finished my 5th this month. I've been fitting reading into my commute to work, my lunch breaks, my son's bath time and bed time. Each reading session counts. It won't happen unless I make time for it.

Digital Organization is another change for my this year. The last few years I've been using an A5 planner and I loved it, but it was becoming so big and bulky. I also didn't carry it around with my on the weekends. It stayed in my work bag. I started using ProPlanner Plus for my iPhone and the weekly layout is really nice. I've also been using Google Keep for lists. It's nice but I would love to have a program that I could create alot of lists and be able to organize them into folders. If you have a recommendation, I would love to hear it.

I recently picked up the Physicians Formula "The Healthy Foundation" and I couldn't wait to tell you how much I love this foundation. The bottle gave me Dior vibes as soon as I saw it. The first time I wore it, I was ecstatic. It gave me such healthy looking skin. It has a doe foot applicator which I really like, and blends into the skin so easily. I've used both a brush and sponge, and both were so simple to use for application.

I agree with the claims to be long wearing, buildable and breathable. This foundation is so comfortable to wear. It doesn't sink into any lines on my face and builds well. My bottle does not mention SPF 20 but I believe Canada has really strict regulations for SPF and many foundations leave the SPF off the bottle. 

The foundation comes in 16 shades, and I have the lightest shade. It matches me very well. I haven't tried any Physician Formula foundations, but I am really impressed with this one. I love it for every day. It's so quick to apply and I don't have to set it. It leaves me skin with a satin finish.

Let's take a look at 5 products I had in my weekly rotation last week! I'm trying to give my palettes a good trial period before I review them, and these are the two I focused on last week.

Morphe 39A Dare to Create: When I first saw this palette, I wasn't that interested in it. However, once I started seeing some looks created on Youtube, I was interested. It was a Christmas present and I was really happy to get it. The little pans are actual normal sized  Morphe eyeshadow pans. The large round pans are transition colors, and each corner section has a color theory. I really do like the set up of this palette. It's very pigmented, very blendable and fun to use. It's not my favorite Morphe palette, but I will continue to use it. (Purchase)

Colourpop X Kathleenlights Dream Street Palette: I wanted to use this palette a few more times before I posted a review. I love the mattes in this palettes, the colors are very unique and pretty. The shimmers are not my favorite and do take some work which surprised me. You need to spray the shadows or put them on top of a glitter glue to foil them. Kathleenlights is one of my favorite Youtubers, and her collaborations haven't disappointed me yet. I really do like this palette, but I don't feel like all the reviews have been honest. Normally, Colourpop shimmers are very metallic and take no extra work. (Purchase)

Makeup Revolution Vice Palette, MUA Burning Embers, Makeup Revolution Neutrals VS Neu-trals, Colourpop Yes, Please, Colourpop She Palette

Makeup Revolution Vice Palette: Makeup Revolution has some great affordable eyeshadow palettes that I highly recommend. The Vice palette is gorgeous and I love both the mattes and shimmers. I own many of their Chocolate palettes, and they're some of my favorite palettes. It has a similar layout to the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palettes. (Purchase*)

MUA Burning Embers Palette: I saw this palette online and fell in love with the colors. It's the only palette that I own my MUA and I was very happy with it. The peachy, berry shades are really fun to play around with. I purchased this through Ebay because it was sold out at the time, and I'm not sure if MUA ships to Canada. If you have been eyeing this palette, try it. I really like it. (Purchase*)

Makeup Revolution New-trals VS Neu-trals: This is a favorite palette of mine. They recently released a second version of this palette, and I really want it. The shimmers are nice on their own, but sprayed with a setting spray they really amp up the look. This is a palette that I'm always happy with whatever look I come up with. (Purchase*)

The Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts palette was really hyped up and I didn't pick it up right away because of the Canadian Exchange Rate, Shipping and Customs. When Black Friday came around, they had a really good deal on the palette, and I decided to take the plunge. When I first took the palette out of the box, I was so impressed by how sturdy the packaging seemed and the sleeve was gorgeous. I wish the gold foil was on the actual palette itself and not just on the sleeve. I usually throw away the sleeve of a palette, but I keep these together. As soon as I opened the palette, I was impressed.

Last week was our first full week back to work, and let me tell you... it was rough. It felt so long and I was so tired. My son's sleep was all over the place during the holidays, and getting back into routine was hard. These are 5 products that I kept in my rotation and reached for over and over.

The Shaanxo BH Cosmetics Remix palette was perfect. The more I use this palette, the more I love it. It is dual sided, and the more neutral shades are on the flip side. I did link my review of this palette, if you're interested. I also picked out a blush quad from BH Cosmetics. I believe this was limited edition, but I do recommend their blushes. I mixed and matched these shades and kept it light. The last BH Cosmetics palette I used, was their Spotlight Highlighter Palette. These highlighters are great and very wearable. I can wear it lightly or build it up.

On the face, I wore my Essence I Heart Stage Eye Primer. I've gone back and forth between using a primer and using concealer to prime my eyeshadow and I always feel that primer does a better job. I like this primer because it isn't too thick, it's bright and covers any discoloration. I would say this is one of my favorite primers. My Benefit Boi ing Brightening Concealer was a must last week. Let's be honest, it's a must most days. I really do like this color correcting concealer and will definitely repurchase.

Each week, I pull new products out of my collection to try out. I will showcase 5 products each week to give you a better idea of what I've been using. This will allow me to talk about products I don't want to do a full review on but want to let you know about. I hope you have a great week.

I received the Winky Lux Kitten palette in a Boxycharm, and was really excited to try it out. While I received this in a subscription box, it can be purchased from the Winky Lux website for 25$. I really thought I would like this palette, the colors seems to be up my alley but it was a flop for me. The shimmer shades only had one really vibrant shade that I liked. The others were okay but nothing that made me want to specifically pick up this palette. I also didn't like the mattes, I found them to be hard to blend, and not very pigmented. The crease shade also didn't look great on my fair skin, it appeared very yellow.

I have a wide variety of eyeshadow palettes and I love both affordable and high end shadows, but these didn't cut it for me. When I tried to use this palette, I kept wanting to pull in another palette and finally decided it just didn't work for me. In the end, this palette really wasn't a winner. The color selection is really what caused me not to want to use this palette. I didn't have those core transition shades that I like. I have tried Winky Lux's Universal Brow pencil, and I do recommend the pencil.

Rimmell London #instaflawless Primer (Clear)

Lately, I've been reaching for this drugstore primer over some of my more expensive primers. I have normal to dry skin (more dry during the winter months) and I don't need a lot from a primer. I'm mostly looking for hydration and I do appreciate a radiant glow. If you're familiar with the L'Oreal Lumi this is similar but not as pigmented or radiant. The #instaflawless dries down clear, blurs my skin, and leaves a natural radiance. It can be worn alone or under makeup. It's not too radiant where it would look greasy or strange wearing it alone on the skin. I really like that it blends quickly and very easily into the skin. I've tried another brand that didn't blend quickly and actually dried patchy. This primer sits very nice on the skin and works well with different foundations.

The formula is ultra lightweight and leaves my skin feeling hydrated. It's also cooling when applying first thing in the morning. While it is radiant, I don't really see the radiance skin through my foundations even when using a BB Cream. I do feel that it brightens my skin. If that's what you're looking for, you will probably want to try another primer. The affordable price tag is very nice. You get 1 fl oz, and the squeeze tube is easy to get product through.

I don't have issues with foundations staying on my skin, with that said I can't speak to foundation longevity when using this product. It has become a "go to" product for me. I will definitely repurchase when I'm finished. I haven't try any of the other Rimmell London #instaflawless line but I am curious to check out more of their stuff. This is a great drugstore find.

Purchase Here (Walmart)*


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