Stila: Illuminating Liquid Foundation

Remember how I used to boo and hiss at foundation, claiming that I wouldn't wear it until I really, really had to. Well, I'm going to change my stance a little here. In general, I still don't love it. I still think that if you're young and have decent skin, you should let that shine through.

But when you want perfect skin or if you're trying to control some oil or get your blend on, the right foundation can be a really good thing. Like the Stila Illuminating Liquid Foundation I got a few weeks back. It has good coverage, creates a really lattering skin tone and it's pleasantly light. Used in combination with the recently reforumulated Stila Sheer Pressed Powder and it gives the appearance of flawless skin that just feels soooo soft. It's a foundation I can live with. Live without? I'm not sure yet. That is always the test.

HRH

Friendship is being able to express it all with "eeee!"

This week was a bit of a doozy, but true to form my Kingston friends came out of the woodwork to tide me through it all. I would like to take this moment to thank them all for making this week just a little bit lighter.

Like Julie who took me to see Henry Rollins do his spoken word think and enable me to laugh so hard that no sound came out and who I managed to see 3 times in less than 24 hours. That hasn't happened since we were both living HMV back in K-town and my my it was wonderful. I must have more of that.

My Mum, who I consider one of my best friends, who just does so much more for me than I can express and having her come to the city so often is just so wonderful. That can keep happening all the time and I'll be quite alright with it.

Or Carly who I ran into on the crosswalk at Yonge and Bloor. The reunion went in typical style for us. Recognition, glee and the realization that it could be fatal if we stop and give each other a huge hug in the middle of Yonge street, so pause everything and run like idiots to the side of the street where we proceeded to hug, squeal with joy and lavish eachother with compliments. Blogs must be thanked for keeping us on top of eachother's lives, thus sparing us the "so what are you up to..." chat and just get right to the good stuff. I need more of this too.

Finally Laura, who I have to spend heaps and heaps of time with before she takes off on her own international adventure. There's something about hanging out with someone you've known and adored for 15 years that's just so affirming. Someone who can really laugh with you about how retarded everything was in the hell that was highschool and shared all those steps of growing beyond it all. I don't know how I could survive without this.

Today's sing-a-long song: "I'll be there" by The Jackson 5

HRH

Stop the madness

Enough is enough. In ten years of being responsible for my own finances I can now say that I've kind of been sucking at it. Bills get paid on time, but I'm making more money than ever and I have less and less of it to spend. It's just not the way it should be. I've been living just beyond my means for awhile now, and because of that and other challenges I've got some debt to deal with. Boo-urns.

It doesn't shock me that I am where I am. I made some choices and had some great adventures. I couldn't have done and enjoyed what I have without assuming some debt. After school I lived overseas and made very little. When I got back here there was a lot of setting up to do and support to be given while M finished school. I regret none of it, but I can see how making a change now will make a huge difference to me later. I'm now at a point where I am making good money and I want to feel like I'm making good money, which means no more of this scraping by stuff.

So, like I took on my weight challenges, I'm now going to try to apply that same kind of thinking and focus to my finances. Like my diet, I've got solid and sensible advice in terms that I really understand and I've learned that in order to do this right I have to change my thinking.

I have goals and they make sense. I want to be free of my debt and have savings. I'm tired of being my bank's bitch. To that end I have taken all my credit cards out of my wallet and put them in a box. I've proven to myself that I don't think of it as credit, but as cash, and that's not smart. I'd love to say that I don't, but I'm a very materialistic person who likes to shop. It's who I am. That mindset and credit is a disastrous combination. I'm putting the breaks on it now while there's still hope. So from here on, if I don't have cash for it, I don't buy it.

I have a plan. It's not complicated. It's manageable and it should only take 18 months to complete. I've set up some automatic payments so I can get some savings going. It has to happen before I have a chance to think about it, otherwise it will never, ever happen. Never. And I'm not waiting until the debt is gone to start saving. Not doing that sooner has been a real mistake. I'm also cutting out a couple of daily indulgences. The era of the daily chai is over for one.

When you look at it, the plan isn't hugely dramatic. I've found that I can do what I want to do with whatever sum of money I have. I'm quite crafty that way. Cutting out credit and some strategic frivolities won't change my lifestyle so much. It will just be less wasteful. Either that or I've become so accustomed to depriving myself of things that I need to do this in order to feel normal. Scary. Who really cares so long as I'm saving.

Today's sing-a-long song: "Money, money, money" by ABBA

HRH

Lotto fever

Tonight will be the draw for the biggest prize in Canadian lottery history, and goodness gracious, people are buying up tickets like they're going out of style. With all this lottery talk I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I'd do if I won.

I'm such a freak that I have alternate plans based on the amount of money I would win. You see, winning $50,000 is a very different fantasy than winning $40,000,000. Personally, winning $50 I would find to be a nice treat given the odds when you're playing the lottery, so my expectations are low. I know that lotteries are an idiot tax, but sometimes, when life is really annoying and boring and future looks pretty hopeless a little lottery fantasy can make the day bearable.

If I won $50,000 it would be pretty welcome. I could be debt-free and have a nice chunk to save and a nice little bit to splurge. I'd get my bass fixed. It wouldn't really change the course of my life, but it would stop those middle-of-the-night, spirit-crushing panic attacks.

A million, that would be pretty fantastic. The depressing idea of buying a nice house in Toronto would become fun, savings galore, I would have a room in my house just for shoes, I could easily go back to school, give some to my family, have investments, travel some...I could be very comfortable for a very long time. Yes, that would suit me just wonderfully.

If the odds really tipped in my favour, like really tipped in my favour, and I woke up tomorrow the winner of 40 million dollars, well that would be something. As unfathomable as that kind of money is, I have some ideas. First off, my parents would be set up for the sweetest retirement in history. Mortgages would be paid off left, right and centre. I could repay and spoil many of the people who've helped me along in my life to a positively ridiculous degree. Then, I would never stop going to school, becoming so smart that I could fell great armies with an idea. Maybe get my Masters in evil. I would travel the world at my own pace and see all the forests. Listen to classical music performed in all the great concert halls. Buy a huge plot of land shaped like the words "Fuck Off" and build a home there. Hopefully waterfront property. I would donate enough money to the hospital that they would have to name a wing after me and I would demand that they use my last name in really, really, big letters...

The reality is that I won't win anything, but thinking about it has been a good time. Lotto fantasies are good fun, so tell me about yours.

Today's sing-a-long song: "If I had a Million Dollars" by the Barenaked Ladies

HRH

Madonna samples ABBA

In other news, the heads of gay men all over the world have been spontaneously exploding with bliss.

HRH

You don’t want no drama

(Alternate title: Me vs. The Black Eyed Peas "My Humps")

Mike sent me an IM earlier this week which went a little something like this: "I think the video for 'My Humps' was going for an empowered feeling, but they just ended up with whorish." At this point in the week I had neither seen the video nor heard the song, but thought that anything that would get "Don't lie" off the air waves had to be a good thing. I've seen the video three times in the last two days and every time I watch it M just starts laughing at me as I have the most appalled look on my face. Here I thought that getting "Don't lie" off the air was a good thing. In hindsight I'll take that song 10 times a day over this tripe.

The song is just so shallow and inane that I'm actually at a loss for words to rant about it. My issues with using anything but the most beautiful words in language being used to describe the curves of a woman's body notwithstanding... lady lumps? Lady lumps. You HAVE GOT to be kidding me.

That aside these have to be the most inane lyrics ever. Just read them without the aid of the catchy beat or Fergie's ass gyrating on screen. How could they a) actually write that song and b)sing it over and over as is required by the recording process without feeling compelled to stab themselves repeatedly in the eye? I've checked and all the of Black Eyed Peas still seem to have their black eyes, so I just don't know. After repeated viewings of this video, I'll be first in line to make sure those black eyes stay black, brother. Oh hells yeah.

Furthermore, what the heck is will.i.am talking about... milk and coco-puffs? When did random cereal shotouts become cool? If you're rhyming about breakfast food, you can't be having good feelings about your street cred.

The whole thing is just so dumb! Why are there shots of a dude sitting on a motorcycle for no reason? It's not even moving! I realize that they director doesn't believe people are paying attention to the non-lumpy portions of the clip, but seriously.. They were probably like "Damn...we need some filler! Sit on that motorcycle." "But it's not moving!" "We'll have a girl and a smoke machine.... nobody is going to notice! It's flawless!"

It's all awful, but the most appalling thing about it you ask?? Fergie's MINT GREEN HEELS! What in the name of all that is beautiful and good in this world are you doing, woman???!!! You can afford someone to tell you not to do stupid things like that. Sell one of the tacky-ass necklaces you're wearing (I mean rented) in this video and buy a real stylist!

The worst part is how catchy the song is. As much as I hate it, I will get it stuck in my head. I will be found tapping a toe or two along to it if I'm subjected to it. If I'm in my car and I hear it on the radio, I might not change the station. And I will feel dirty and ashamed. But I won't, I swear that I won't, ever wear mint green high heels.

Today's sing-a-long song: "Hate this and I'll love you" by Muse.

HRH

Stila: Sun

Just before my birthday last month, I was given a chance to have my makeup done by one of the big makeup artists that work for Pout. Holt Renfew does things like this all the time. You go in, they do you up with their products and usually you buy something. I try to plan these little suck-up fests around big events so that I get the benefit of getting my makeup done and go out looking fabulous.

I don't want to go into detail, because I don't want to hate on anyone, but I basically came out of that experience looking like I was headlining as a Vegas showgirl. Fine for Vegas, but so out of hand that I wore sunglasses indoors, lest anyone see me escape from the store looking like that. Sadly this is what happens at most of these things. It happened to me at Origins too. MAC and Benefit actually left me feeling pretty and most recently Stila converted me into a rabid fan of their line after a positively magical makeover experience. Not only did the artist make me look awesome, but I learned a lot of application techniques.

As such, the next few reviews will be of Stila products. They've recently reduced their prices so I was able to get a lot more product for the same amount of money that I was planning on spending. Yee and haw.

The first of my spoils that I will share is the Stila Bronzer Sun. I've never really known how to use bronzer. I've spent a lot of time just enjoying my general pallor, loving blush and knowing enough that for special occasions I should dust a little blush on my forehead and nose. I owned a bronzer that was completely wrong for me. It had way too much shimmer, was way to dark and make me look like I'd brushed dirt on my face. Gorgeous.

As part of my Stila adventure I learned how to apply it (with a blush brush) and where to put it (generally where the sun would hit you first) and how very, very important it is to blend in circular motions after it's been applied. So I start below my temples and work towards the apple of my cheek. I don't go all the way over there, but instead that's where my blush will go... and then it will all be blended some more. This makes it look like you're just a little glowy. It's not immediately apparent that you're wearing bronzer (as it should be) but you just look healthy.

This is a good thing to get as the sun fades from our lives for yet another year. That and a seasonal effective disorder lamp and I should be set.

HRH

My saviours

Sometimes birthday presents come late and sometimes birthday presents can up your quality of life that one notch that is the difference between coping and not coping. It can take just enough straws off the camels back to enable it to cross the dessert one more time. In the saga that is life, it is the little things that get you through the big things.

You see, Shaver and Tyla saved my life today, much like that DJ did last night. Apparently Shaver was locked in some kind of epic battle with a supplier of things that I might like as a present. It had long past the point of ridiculous by his telling of it, so he and Tyla opted to get me something I really, really need.

They got me something that nearly made me shed tears of joy and relief from the first moment I used them. I was freed from my auditory shackles, my enjoyment of music no longer an exercise in masochism. After nary a week of torment, I was again in possession of the beloved Apple in-ear headphones. Yes they suck for most people who use them, but for me, the girl with the enormous cranium and the tiny little ears, they are bliss. Thank you both so much!

Today's sing-a-long song: "The Sounds of Science" by The Beastie Boys

HRH

Frederik Fekkai: Glossing Shampoo & Conditioner

I have a drawer in my bathroom that is basically full of products that make hair shiny. I have straight, dark hair. I know what my hair can and can't do. Grousing about the limitations of hair with no curl would take up more space than you're all willing to read, so I will say this; one thing I can do is make my hair damn shiny.

I was given the whole glossing set for my birthday. Having tired and enjoyed the glossing cream I was looking forward to getting the complete system going on. First off, the shampoo and conditioner smell awesome and the good smell seems to stick even after you've dried your hair. Next, is does make your hair pretty shiny however they employ a bit of sneakery to get your hair that way. Part of the directions for using the shampoo and conditioner are that you rinse your hair with cold water. Here's the thing, use any shampoo or conditioner and rinse with cold water and it will make your hair shinier. Using a shampoo and conditioner with olive oil in it with amplify that even more, but cold water is a key element.

With winter on its way, I can't say that I've been rinsing with cold water as much as I should. Douse my head in cold water in the morning and you'll have one very grumpy Chelsea on your hands. That said, I still get pretty glossy hair from it.

Bottom line, smells good, leaves hair in a good state and nice and shiny in cold or warm water.

HRH

Despite

By all accounts today should have been a crap day. It was grey, Prague grey. Most of the meetings I had today should have crushed my soul (I'm sure on some level they did), not to mention 85 per cent of the e-mails I got. I ate too many Twizzlers and got a monster headache (possibly from the sugar spiking in my blood or from the afformentioned soul crushing meetings). The left headphone in my wonderful set of Apple headphones-that-suck-for-everyone-else-but-me-because-I-have-strange-ears busted just as I was getting to work, thereby depriving me of peace on the way home and annoying me with the reality that I don't have a spare $60 to get new ones and must return to my old painful ones. My knees were all crunchy and sore from my workout on Tuesday. Someone told me that my blog posts are better when I rant and that posts about my cat really suck (Yeah! Well, well... you suck!). I found a cat hair in my tea.

Indeed, normally these would be the makings of a good neurotic pity-party, but today, nope. Sometimes the mixture of all the bad, amazing, normal, beautiful or irritating things with the things in my life all mushed up togeter makes me feel really alive.

Either that, or it's the Mozart. Beauty like that can make you forgive anything.

Today's sing-a-long song: The Marriage of Figaro, Act IV, Ah Tutti Contenti
(I dare you to sing-a-long today)

HRH

The lies of the boy bands

When I'm working out, I've found that I have to alternate my music selection from day to day. Sometimes angry drum & bass will scare me into running and sometimes a selection of R&B will get my feet moving. Once in awhile I have to pull out the big guns and listen to really, really cheesy music. It's mindless, it's happy and I can run to it.

The other day I made the mistake of actually thinking about the cheezola sounds coming through my headphones and I got a little philosophical. It a little scary how far I went with this, but I also think that I have a point.

And my point is that boybands set girls up with totally unrealistic ideas of what boys are actually like. You see, part of the appeal of the boyband to the young teenage girl is that they're a non-threatening introduction to the world of boys and dating. And that's all and good, but why set girls up with expectations that are just preposterous?


Lie 1) "You're all I ever wanted"



Right now, you mean to add. There's a sad reality that young impressionable girls just aren't aware of, and that is that young men, in matters of sex and dating, will tell bold-faced lies to weaken your defenses. Suuuure I'm the one you've been waiting for your whole life. Does that include the 9 years that girls had cooties? Does that trump how those new Adidas shoes were all you ever wanted last week? Or does it trump the redhead you're going to meet next year? I don't think so.


Lie 2)"Oh baby, give me one more chance"



I'm sorry and I'll do whatever you want to make up for it. This lie is particularly heinous because it's doubly misleading. First it assumes that men actually apologize and admit that they're wrong. That NEVER happens. Based on that piece of best-selling fiction, the lie goes on to suggest that a guy would willingly do all kind of crazy things to get back into your good books. This also NEVER spontaneously happens. Only after much guilt-tripping and hint-dropping does a man begin to see what could be done to make reparations, and at best it's done begrudgingly.


Lie 3) I want you back for good



Let me translate this one for you ladies. "I left you for better things, but better things wouldn't have me, and now I'm crawling back to you in the hope that you'll take me back. Who loves ya baby!"


Lie 4)"I don't know what he does to make you cry, but I'll be there to make you smile"



No, really, I will treat you better than he does. If you believe that, then I have some land to sell you in the Everglades. You ultimately dictate how well someone treats you. That's right YOU! He may treat you better than the guy you're with now, but unless that transition is accompanied by a shot of self-esteem and self-worth, odds are you're jumping from the frying pan into the fire. I guess "I'll treat you better than him if you learn to respect yourself" isn't as catchy a song lyric, but I would sing-a-long if I heard it.


Lie 5)"I'll be loving you forever"



This particular lie can go sour on you in two different and terrible ways. The most common lie, and reality, is that no one, especially a teenage boy, is going to love you forever (except for maybe your mother). You're lucky if you're going to make it 'till prom. Personally I think it's unwise to pledge something for a period of time that is beyond comprehension and calculation. But that's just un-romantic me.

The slightly scary other side of the coin is if he actually DOES love you forever. Let's not kid ourselves. Teenage girls are just as fickle and evil as teenage boys (perhaps I should do something equally mean to girl groups next week), so when a girl decides that she would like to move on to greener pastures, the boy may not be so keen on this new agenda. She's pretty much purchased a one-way ticket to Stalkerville.


So there you have it. What it is, I don't know, but it sure is there.

HRH

Dear Buddha, I would like a pony and a plastic rocket

I find it strange that it takes me a good twelve hours to really have a movie sink in. It's been this way for a long time. I think I'm still working through a lot of the films I saw in school in my head to this very day.

Last night I got to see Serenity and get a much needed dose of Joss. And in true Whedonite form, I was very entertained, I laughed a great deal and now I'm just a little depressed. Well done Joss, well done.

Also huge kudos to him for the reference to the only poem that I like: The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. Of course, now that I think about it, it may be the first poem I ever really read and may be to blame for my basic disdain for the entire art. Regardless, there was albatross talk. And guns, and explosions and Chinese cowboy talk. The hits just kept on coming.

Today's sing-a-long song: "The hurtin' kind" by Joss Stone

HRH

Instant Karma

Just to report, I had to have my blood taken for another test today at a different lab and I was in and out of there in 5 minutes, flat. I nearly kissed the lab tech.

HRH

Stila: Perfectly Plum

I like palettes. They make life really easy. For those in the world who do not enjoy mixing and matching shades of shadow and blush, palettes are really quite handy. And they usually only last a season or two, so they're great for when you're embracing something trendy.

Stila wins my heart over and over again because they put together the latest complimentary shades in absolutely adorable packaging. Don't try to tell me the packaging doesn't matter! I'll put my hands over my ears and drown you out by singing Keely Smith songs really loud until you shut up. You know I will.

Anyway, this set of palettes comes in four varieties: Sage, Peach, Gold & Plum. I purchased Sage for someone with dark hair, a rosy complexion and hazel eyes. She also loves tweed, so really it couldn't fail. Of course, I couldn't leave it at just getting one for her, so I asked the kind lady at the Stila counter which one she thought would be best for me. I had a feeling it would be plum, since people have been all about putting purple on me for the last 3 years.

And guess what? Perfectly plum it was. I can't say that I love the colour of the purple shadow in the palette. It does work with the other shades, but I find for my tastes, replacing it with the Cargo SmokyEye Liner Duo shadow Madagascar works a lot better for me. Regardless, it's a handy palette for days when I need to do a post-work touch up and don't feel like lugging 3 different shadows and a blush with me. Also the blush is a great colour, and the pigment is really intense. And that's pretty much always a good thing to me.

HRH