One of my favourite parts of blogging is the journaling aspect for me. I love to go back and revisit my more personal posts. I wanted to bring back my life update type posts. Yes, I'm working from home and life has slowed down quite a bit but at the end of the day, life is still happening. This morning was freezing, taking my son to school. It was -27 degrees celsius, and you know it's cold when the snow under your feet is crunching as you walk. If you live in a cold climate, you know exactly what I'm talking about. This cold is sticking around for a few more days, I believe. 

My January Boxycharm arrived, and I'm excited to share my box with you. Boxycharm is a monthly subscription box, and they do ship to Canada. They have different levels of boxes, and I'm subscribed to the base box. As a Canadian, I pay 5 dollars extra for shipping, and it comes to 30$ US per month. I like the variety of items I receive, the value of each box and I'm able to try brands that I normally wouldn't try. This month I'm mostly excited to try the Ciate London Velvet Eyeshadow palette. This month's theme for the box was Fresh Start. Let's get into what was in my box. 

 

The Urban Decay Naked Honey palette launched in 2020 and comes with 12 matte, metallic and shimmer golden neutral shades. This palette consists of "classic golds, warm ambers, and rich chocolate browns." and was inspired by 70's glam. While this palette is not vegan, it is paraben-free, sulfate-free, phthalate-free, and cruelty-free. The included brush is vegan and cruelty-free and really is a decent brush for eyeshadow application. It is housed in sturdy plastic packaging and it has a nice mirror as well. 

 

Beakey sponges came to my attention at the beginning of the pandemic when I needed sponges, but I wasn't going into stores to pick up any products. I hear a few things about these sponges and decided it was time to try them. I ordered them from Amazon, and at the time I had to wait a few weeks because Amazon was prioritizing what items they were shipping out. My initial impressions were that the sponges were a nice size and expanded nicely. I've been testing them for months and decided it was time to review them. 

 

The Morphe 9V Vintage Rose palette is a 9 pan palette that consists of dusty rose shades. I love these type of shades, and I picked this palette up quite a few months ago. During the beginning of the pandemic, I started working from home and didn't wear much makeup. I have a backlog of makeup I need to review and test out. This palette is a favourite of mine, I think Morphe did a great job with the formula and the shade selection. If I compare this with their previous 9 pan palettes, I do think the formula has been improved. 

 

 

The Natasha Denona Peak palette was included in my November 2020 Boxycharm base box. This palette is a Boxycharm exclusive but you may be able to find it around on the web. This palette is a 5 pan palette "featuring Natasha's essential everyday warm-toned eye pigments that she mixes and matches from her favourite palette." These shades are not new to the Natasha Denona lineup, they've actually been taken from the Biba, Safari and Sunrise palette. The shades are (Aya, Jasper, Thorn, Amhara, Shine) from left to right. 

I picked up the Morphe X Madison Beer palette through Sephora Canada and was excited to try a new Morphe palette because it had been months since I purchased any new makeup. For much of the summer, I didn't bother wearing eyeshadow. The product description claims to be "a palette that contains soft neutrals and rose-gold hues, Madison's musts for any occasion." I will admit I had no clue who Madison was, but I liked the look of this palette and picked it up for 28$. Madison is actually a singer-songwriter and this collection also contains and brush set, lip gloss and other products. I am only reviewing the eyeshadow palette, I did not pick up anything else in the collection. 

We are 8 days in 2021 and it’s been an interesting 8 days. Canada has our highest numbers of Covid-19 cases being reported and our day to day lives are different. My husband is back to work, I am working from home, and my son was in virtual school this week. We were juggling all the schedules this week, but it’s working and we’re doing okay. My son’s school is reopening for in-person learning next week, and I have a mix of emotions. I know the kids prefer to be in class, they learn better in class, and virtual school for a 7-year-old is tough. I do wish our numbers were lower though. I’m scared, we live in a scary world right now. Before the break, we still had zero cases reported for the school and I really pray that we stay safe.

My province has implemented a curfew that will begin this weekend, this will not really change our day to day lives since we’re home by 8 pm anyway. I see a lot of people are upset but we really need people to understand that gathering in homes is not acceptable, we need our numbers to come down- our hospitals are overloaded.  I really believe this should have been implemented during the holidays, it has been reported that 48% of people still gathered during the holidays. The people who are upset about the 8pm curfew, I want to ask, “where were you going anyway?” We’re supposed to stay home.