- - ColourPop | Disney Designer Collection Review - -

A little while ago, the stars aligned - not only was ColourPop's Disney Designer Collection back in stock, but there was also free international shipping with no minimum! ⭐

The Disney Collection launched at the end of September 2018 and it sold out several times before I finally got the chance to pick up a few items. Lucky for you readers - as I write this post - the Disney Designer Collection is fully stocked and still available! The collection features the following Disney princess-inspired cosmetics:

• An eyeshadow palette
• 6 lipsticks
• 6 eyeshadows
• 3 lip glosses
• 2 highlighters

Although the entire collection is beautiful, what really caught my eye were three eyeshadows and one lip gloss - all of which I was able to pick up when the collection was back in stock. It's these four items that I'm going to take a closer look at right now...

Check out the full review right after the jump!

- - Fujifilm | Instax Mini Film Review : Shiny Star - -

Another Wednesday, another post!

I recently started a new series of reviews in which I showcase different kinds of Instax Mini Film. All of the instant mini film I feature in these posts has been tested out with a Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 camera. Last week, I talked about the Instax Mini Comic Film; this week, I'm continuing the series with a look at the Instax Mini Shiny Star Film. Check out the full review right after the jump!

- - Fujifilm | Instax Mini Film Review : Comic - -

Hello and Happy Wednesday!

At the beginning of this year, I talked about how I would like to review different kinds of Fujifilm Instax mini film in the coming months. While these posts are a chance for me to talk about the different Instax film designs - what I liked about them and what I didn't like - this will mostly be my opportunity to show you guys a few of the photos that I took. These posts will typically be fairly short since I end up giving away a lot of the photos that I take with my Instax Mini 9 camera.

Check out the first installment in this Instax Mini Film series right after the jump!

- - What's Going On With Julep? - -

I'm creating this post in order to discuss (and possibly shed some light on) the recent Julep drama. 

You see, this past Friday, at the end of the business day, Julep dropped this bombshell on all of its Mavens:

I don't even know where to start talking about this.

Julep's decision to drop its subscription program came as a shock to a lot of people. Julep, at least with founder Jane Park at its helm, always seemed very honest and customer-focused. Now, the company was dropping their key program out of the blue and they were also erasing everyone's points (Jules)!

I'm sure that somewhere in the terms we agreed to when we signed up for the Maven subscription there was a clause stating that the whole program could be discontinued at any time. But still...it sucks, you know? Everyone lost something in terms of Jules. The biggest loss that I've seen so far has been 14,000 Jules. That's 7 boxes that someone could have gotten for free! 

To give some context to this mess, I think this GeekWire article gives a good background as to what has been going on with Julep in the last little while. Some key points from the article:

• 2016: Jane Park took a step back from Julep's day-to-day activities as Glansaol acquired her company
• December 2018: Glansaol declared bankruptcy and Julep laid off 102 employees
• January 31, 2019: two brick-and-mortar Washington locations closed
• Julep is now in the process of being sold to AS Beauty

Julep's email came as a surprise, but I'll be honest - I haven't been as invested in the company in recent years as I had been when I first found out about it in October 2013.

In the 6 years since I have accumulated so much Julep nail polish that I don't know what to do with it all (I don't paint my nails very often these days). I have found a number of products that I love, but I have also found replacement for them which I can get locally. Plus, I started to feel less inclined to buy from Julep when they started charging Canadians a shipping fee last year. 

In terms of Jules, I had 1,900 when Julep sent the email. The Jule Box page was still up (and is currently up as I write this), so I quickly redeemed my points for Lock Down Your Brows. I actually got a shipment notification today, so hopefully it comes in! (Edit: on February 25th - less than a week since I ordered it - I received the brow gel! Hopefully more of you got to take advantage of what was left in the Jule Box!)

I guess we'll see how this situation unfolds and what happens to Julep, but so far things aren't looking good.

-----------------------------------------------

"You get to keep your Maven perks" - What were those again??

How do you guys feel about this situation?

Please let me know in the comments below!

Thank you for reading! 💙

- - Happy New Year! - -

Happy New Year and Merry (Eastern Orthodox) Christmas (eve)! 🎄

It's been forever since my last post, hasn't it been? Crazy to think that I didn't put up any posts in 2018...but in short - I really needed to take time away from my blog because it was becoming more of a chore and obligation than something that I enjoyed updating. Thank you to all of you who have stuck by me (and thanks to all of the new fans I've gained) throughout this time!

If you can believe it, not that much has changed since you've heard from me last. The most significant changes of the past two years actually occurred within the past four months:

The first is that I have become very passionate about instant photography (as you can probably tell from my latest Instagram posts). The second significant change was that I cut my long hair down to a pixie cut at the end of October. Neither event is earth-chattering, but these things are important enough that they have somewhat altered my daily activities.

As we start a new year, I have a number of ideas for posts that I want to publish in 2019. Some of these ideas include: talking about my experience so far with a pixie cut, reviewing a couple of Fujifilm cameras, and taking a look at a number of Fujifilm Instax Mini Films. This last idea - reviewing the mini films - will take the form of really short posts that showcase a few of the photos I've taken using different kinds of Instax frames. I'd also love to go back to talking about Monthly Empties as well as reviewing skincare and cosmetic products throughout year.

Ambitious plans - I know! In any case, I'll take it one post at a time and see how things go!

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for reading! 💜