I wish I could call these my Holiday Favourites but unfortunately  these are my ‘living in real estate limbo-hell’ favourites. lol! We’ve been living extremely minimally with most of our belongings in storage, and constantly having to leave our house with a days worth of stuff. I’ve felt pretty off, disorganized and haven’t been able to get to the gym as often as I’ve liked, and I’ve been relying on snacky things for stress relief. I especially need the stress relief now that our real estate situation fell apart. Basically we made an offer on our dream house a month ago, we quickly prepped our house and did renos and listed it, and yesterday someone bumped our offer on our dream house and made the last month of real estate hell  pointless. If any of you are familiar with the Vancouver housing market, you know what a nightmare it is to do anything here unless you have $$$ in cash that you can throw at a sale. Typical home buyers are not those people. Anyways, today we regroup and figure out what we want to do next.

The things that have helped me cope are 1. a bit of retail therapy and 2. beauty products. Especially facial cleansers, fun lipstick and a great foot peal I’ve discovered.

Erno Laszlo Detoxifying Double Cleans Duo

I’ve had a sample of Erno Laszlo cleansing oil for about three years which I got at the Erno Laszlo store in New York, and I’d been using it over the past two months (it’s a large sample, and a very tiny bit is needed) and I’ve really loved it. I decided to pick up this set from the Nordstrom sale and so far I’m really liking it. The sample I had was their more famous cleansing oil and this one is a ‘detoxing’ cleansing oil with charcoal and sea mud. I was told it was very strong, but I haven’t broken out or had any irritations and it’s been such a lovely luxurious routine. I love a good double cleans, especially with a facial oil. Since I’ve not been wearing much makeup lately, I’ve been really focusing on my skincare so that I don’t “need” the makeup as much.

Charlotte Tilbury Perfect Pink Lipstick Duo

I have about 4 used nubs of Charlotte Tilbury pillow talk lip liners and they are my absolute favourite. I’ve been really wanting to try a lipstick from her but they are kind of pricey so I jumped at this set which includes two lipsticks (both colors that work really well for me) plus a lip liner for a bit less than two lipsticks. They are both the perfect pinks for my coloring and although I would call them both mauve pinks (on a darker pink than the other), the darker color is described as a tawny berry. These are supposed to be universally flattering pinks which I think is correct. If you aren’t wearing full makeup, a fun and happy lipstick can be enough to make you feel put together.

Baby Foot

When we went to Las Vegas in June I had a huge problem with cracked heels. An hour after we got off the plane my heel cracked so badly that I couldn’t walk on it, all because of the hot and dry desert air. I went to the pharmacy and purchased a foot file, filed it religiously, put lotion on it, soaked it, got a pedicure when I got back in town and still, my heel kept cracking in the same spot. This was a reoccurring issue ever since we left Las Vegas and it was pretty upsetting actually.  I resolved that I would have to get to a podiatrist to have my foot repaired, but before I did that I wanted to try this foot peel that I’d been told about.

I used this Baby Foot Peel about two weeks ago and was very cautious with it because of the crack on my heel. I was afraid that the acid peel on this would really hurt, and it would create an even bigger problem, so I used it only for the hour that it recommends you use it for. It was slightly stingy on my cracks but not so bad that I felt I needed to take the boot off. My friend who used it said she kept the boot on for two hours, and I’ve read reviews online that all say the same -1.5-2 hours for full peel effect, and that the 1 hour recommendation is very conservative. With just the one hour recommended on the package I got at least 75% of the rough skin on my heel removed, and 100% of the rough skin all over the rest of my foot gone. It’s a bit confusing because for the first three days after the treatment nothing happens and you think it didn’t work, and then suddenly on the third day your skin starts molting. I purchased a second one and I’m going to do it again in a few days but so far this has completely cured my cracked heel issue. The skin is no longer so rough that it splits when you put weight on it.

If you are having rough dry feet from wearing sandals all summer, I definitely, definitely recommend trying this. You will have to suffer through wearing closed shoes during the peeling stage which lasts about a week, but it’s so worth the end resutls.

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