Pink(berry) Bath

While my American friends are off observing Memorial Day in all the usual fashions (I hear beer, beaches and BBQ factor prominently) it’s just another hot and sweaty start to the week everywhere else.  So what better time to highlight the berrylicious bath I took last night; add some more hot and sweaty to this Monday afternoon, whether you’re hanging with friends and family or just trying to make it through the workday without collapsing. Both groups sound like they could use a relaxing bath at the end of the day regardless – here’s some fun suggestions for making it a sweet one.

Pink and fruity was the name of this bath game, with two Comforting Lush products taking centre stage, The Comforter shower cream, a silky, black currant-scented body wash, and its complimentary bubble bar.  This plump bubble bar retails for a whopping $11.95 on Lush.ca; like many of Lush’s products, that’s quite enough to give the average shopper a bit of pause.  But as noted, this bubble bar is a bruiser, weighing in at a solid 200 grams.  I’ll get four to six generously bubble’d baths out of this guy, particularly if I continue to cut off the pieces as I use them and run them under the tap in a strainer, comme ca (far less waste this way; also, I find whole bars don’t hold up well to repeated direct use, taking on an odd, grainy kind of texture):

Ambiance and additional fruity smells were provided by a new-to-me wax vendor, Sassy Girl Aroma, and their – wait for this word (fruit) salad – Mango Pomegranate Strawberry Raspberry Guava wax chunks.  This is pretty much the best smelling stuff on earth, crazy name notwithstanding – sweet and tart and super, deliciously fruity.  So good.

The final touch was another Lush product, this time another new-to-me item, a Razzle Dazzle bath oil…bomb?  I’m actually not sure how to categorize this super emollient, neon pink butterball except to say it’s exactly like holding a super emollient, neon pink butterball.  A melt!  It’s a bath melt.  Which means when you drop it into your tub, it floats around, melting down into a little puddle of berry pink oils and other moisturizing stuff.

I can’t say this is an item I’d purchase again.  Retailing for $3.50 a piece, I found this bath melt to be pretty pointless, providing little of the moisturization you’d expect from a 20 gram ball of essential oils (on the plus side, it was delightful to scoop it out of the water and let it run down my hands and arms.)  It also smelled nothing like a raspberry, and was incredibly messy to handle.  Like trying to hold a pat of pink mica-dusted butter.  I’ll also note here that some months back a young woman got into trouble with this exact bath melt after she mistook it for something other than what it was and rubbed it all over her face and body.  You may remember her skin turned an angry neon pink – I believe it, because today I see that in between my fingers, there’s lots of hot pink smudgy bits, and that was with very little direct contact.  So a bit more effort than payoff on this one, unfortunately.

So there you have it, a fruity refresher fit for the workday warrior seeking relaxation, or the happy holiday-er washing the last bits of sand off the long weekend.  I hope you enjoy it, no matter the day’s activities. 🙂

Disney Girl Challenge: Alice

It’s all aces for Alice in this mani inspired by the Disney animated movie, Alice in Wonderland.  My preferred Alice is actually this super messed up version (but really, is there any other kind?) from 1985.  It was a two-part musical TV special filmed entirely on a set with all your favourite film stars of the 1980s and 1940s (Scott Baio! Carol Channing! Sammy Davis Jr.!  Ringo Starr!) and like all great adaptations of Alice, it was a total mindfu*k. I re-watched it the other evening, and aside from calling up some warm nostalgic feelings of anxiously awaiting its televised debut, I was reminded of how very inappropriate Alice in Wonderland is for its young audience.  I really don’t know how I wasn’t irrevocably damaged by the sight of a slobbery, puffy puppet Jabberwocky chasing a shrieking little blonde girl through a lightning-streaked warren of gnarled roots and…yeah, you know what?  That movie was just as scary the other night as it was when I was a kid! Damage done!  I think I’ll take this version instead.

Sunday Sparkler

Hoo boy, another day’s temperatures projected to be above 30 degrees, this time with a pretty great chance of rain – you know, one of those summer storms that seems to heat things up more than it cools them down? And yes, I know it’s still technically spring, but tell that to the weather.

And my nails, which are jumping straight into summer with this very sparkly and simple mani featuring Finger Paints’ Colorful Collage, a name that sucks just tremendously. Clearly this polish should be called Disco Whistle.  Why does no one ever consult me on these things?!

Here I paired…sigh…Colorful Collage with Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri in Show Steel-er, a light grey creme, to brighten up them grey skies.  At least I can do that, even if I have zero control over the temperature… (narrows eyes) yet.

PlayStation

Don’t tell anyone, but one of the things I love most about Mr. Finger Candy is that he is an unabashed Sony fanboy.  This is a man I once watched break into a delighted happy dance in the middle of Best Buy because they had an unexpected shipment of impossible-to-find PS3s.  Our 3D TV is a Sony.  Our sound system is Sony. You can count the number of PlayStations and Vitas and PSPs (a whoozit?) we’ve owned in plurals.  I respect brand loyalty, and my husband’s got that in spades.

The flip-side to that devotion, of course, is that those consoles – today a PS3 and a PS4 – have very nearly achieved “other woman” status; they monopolize a lot of time and brain cells (his AND mine; I love my video games, too, although let’s not kid ourselves – the consoles are his.  I’m more of a PC gamer.)

Although these pink, framed-in PlayStation nails are clearly all about me, because I’m the one with the frosted pink controller.  His is red.  And white.  And blue, and about five in basic black (GTA is murder on the old thumb toggles.  And any innocent pedestrians standing around if I’m behind the virtual wheel.)

Sandra’s Secret Midnight Garden

Lots of literary references in that title.  Show of hands if you, too, took two years’ of post-secondary children’s literature (the exact same course two years in a row, actually; it was a pre-taped class offered through my university’s remote education program, “remote” translating to forgetting to watch any of the classes throughout the semester and then having to furiously cram 60 watchable hours of class time into the three days before the final exam.  In related news, I think we may have hit on the reason I had to take the class twice, yes?) 😉

For this manicure, I gathered inspiration from two beloved works of children’s literature, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden and Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden.  Just not beloved by me; as I recall, I didn’t read either (hitting on reason number two I had to re-take the class, although in my defence, when your course list includes 30 some-odd texts, you actually can pick or choose.  It’s also how I avoided Watership Down, because that book is wretched and upsetting.)

For these Garden-centric nails, I combined both the Midnight and the Secret, topping CND Vinylux’s Dazzling Dance, a sheer, purple-tinged topper speckled with fine holographic glitter, with Whimsical Ideas by Pam’s Secret Garden, a predominately green glitter studded with tiny fuchsia hexes.  And because no Secret or Midnight Garden (no matter who it belongs to, me or that punk, Tom) would be complete without at least a tiny sliver of moon, I added one of those, too, in the form of a tiny gold nail charm from Daily Charme.

And for those of you who may like some closure on whether I did or did not eventually end up passing the class, yes, I did – second time was the ticket.  And just to annoy you even further, I’ll also note that I didn’t fail the class the first time I took it.  I just didn’t like the grade I received.  I won’t tell you what that grade was, because it was decent by most standards and you’ll think me bananas, but I was a pretty high-strung J-school student (weren’t we all?) and anything less than the best…was a felony (*ba-dum ching!*)  Okay, okay, I’ll see myself out now. 😉

She Sells

More like “She bought…these shell stickers.  In blue and now pink.  So she should use them.  And possibly stop narrating her life from an omnipotent perspective.”

So yeah, what she said.  This is my second time using these shell stickers I purchased from Daily Charme, and they applied just as nicely in this rosy pink hue as they did in the icy turquoise I used some months back. Made of real shell and sold on one small, solid sheet with an adhesive backing, the stickers take well to being cut into various shapes, although I prefer simply cutting out a sticker in the shape of one of my nails to use as an accent nail.

Here, though, I covered all of my nails in the shells, laying the stickers atop a red manicure I had done earlier in the day.  Last time, fretting about what a layer of toxic topcoat might do to the delicate shells, I opted against using any and instead destroyed my manicure with simple soap the first time I washed my hands.

So this time I gave things a whirl with topcoat, and I’m pleased to report that it had absolutely no adverse effect on the shells whatsoever.  If anything, the high gloss topcoat highlighted some of the cool, colour-shifting bits in the shells that were getting lost amidst that pretty mother of pearl design.  And from a practical perspective, using a topcoat helps fill in the fine ridges in the stickers that result from their diamond-type scoring. The scoring helps the stiffer-than-usual stickers lie flat on your nails, but the little slices also snag and rip out every bit of your hair that has the misfortune to drift into the orbit of your hands.  Which is A LOT, and I’m not one to fidget around with my hair.  Otherwise, these shells were once again a delight to use and wear – a very cool nail product that does what it’s supposed to, and well at that.  What a delight!

Beach Blanket

Over the span of about eight overnight hours, my city went from cool, sweetly-scented springtime glory to dank, humid cesspool.  Summer arrived in a big, bad way this morning, and it’s already disgusting.  And because I live in a condo managed by a bunch of old ladies who never got over the high school urge to mean girl one another, thus leading to many poor fiduciary decisions, such as whatever snit fit led to our heaters – freaking uncontrollable from within our units, by the way – continuing to be cranked to 11 at the end of May, we are sitting in +30 degree weather WITH THE HEATERS ON.  So now we have both our air conditioner AND our heat PUMPIN’.  Carbon footprint?  Pfft.  Besides, this is just making up for the snit fit last year that led to the entire building’s heat not being turned on until mid-December.  I’m Pauly Shore’s burrito in Encino Man – hot on the outside, icy cold in the middle (“What’s a Pauly Shore?” said so many people.)

Back to the nails?  Yes, let’s.  This is Contrary Polish’s Beach Blanket, a fitting name for such a muggy day.  I’ve had this polish for a while, but I don’t believe I’ve ever given it the swatching treatment before, shame on me.

Beach Blanket is a jelly-type polish, and so it’s quite sheer – this one will require at least four coats if you’re twitchy about visible nail lines.  Dusted with fine purple shimmer, Beach Blanket takes on a cool speckled look in the shade – combined with its lush red hue, the overall effect is very juicy strawberry.  Lovely.

Intergalactic Planetary: A Mini Lush Review

Ahh, now this is more like it.  Some of you may remember that last week I attempted a design inspired by an Intergalactic bath bomb from Lush Cosmetics.  Through the ultimate confluence of poor polish choice, poor design choice and just plain old not paying attention, that manicure wound up looking a lot like a pair of turquoise, floral print board shorts, the kind you never see on real people out in the world, just faceless mannequins at the mall.

So I took another run at an Intergalactic-inspired mani, and this time I think things turned out much, much better, don’t you?  I particularly like my ring finger; it looks very much like the bath bomb I wound up dropping into my tub some hours later.

And how did the bath bomb perform?  Incredibly well, actually!  Fizzing neither too slowly, nor too quickly, it bobbed around for at least five minutes, shooting off the most gorgeous, mica-dusted rainbow bubbles with every swirl.  The effect was so cool, as were the cute little crackling noises it made as it released the popping candy at its core.  And unlike the similarly hued Experimenter bath bomb I tried last month, this one did not turn my bathwater putty brown – instead it was the most gorgeous shade of indigo blue, and glimmered gently with golden mica dust.

S is for Sandra!

Also, and I don’t mean to alarm you, but there appears to be a rainbow-vomiting eel in my bathtub.  Were it not for Lush’s firm and stated commitment to providing cruelty-free, vegan products, I wouldn’t put it past them to do precisely that – “Now with 100% more eel!”  Lush loves to sneak little bits and bobs into their products. Thankfully the only add-ons to this bath bomb were those sweet little bits of popping candy.

A small word about the Intergalactic’s smell.  If you’re a fan of earthy scents, this will probably be right up your alley.  Infused with peppermint, it tingles the nose (and the skin.)  That peppermint, though, in combination with the earthy note – patchouli, sandalwood, etc. – sends this one, for me at least, straight into old man, grandpa territory. The scent is also very strong and lingers on the skin (and the surface of the tub) for hours. Something to be aware of if you’re very sensitive to those sorts of smells (I don’t like them very much, but I can deal with it in a one-use product like this one.)

And while I had no problems with this colour-saturated bath bomb staining my hide turquoise blue, the water clinging to my skin when I got out of the tub – which also made its way onto the floor, and the lid of the toilet, and the edge of the tub – WAS turquoise blue.  There was also a good deal of gold mica glitter pooled in the bottom of the tub.  So for the sake of your skin and your acrylic surfaces, I’d dance around beneath the shower for a few moments post-bath, literally wash them blues (and golds) away.

Small issues of scent preference and turquoise-tinged water notwithstanding, the Intergalactic was an awesome bath bomb, and a fun, beautiful addition to my bath time routine.  I’m glad that it seems to have become part of Lush’s all-the-time, regular offerings.  You can nab one for yourself at your preferred Lush retailer; I purchased mine from Lush.ca.

Back Splash

So this is totally the tile backsplash in the Golden Girls’ Miami kitchen, right?  We just need an always-at-the-ready and ever-so artfully displayed cherry cheesecake parked in the foreground and we’ll be all set!

For these free-handed geometric nails (striping tape makes me itchy) I used four Essie polishes from last year’s summer collection, white Private Weekend, pale lemon Chillato, coral Peach Side Babe and baby blue Salt Water Happy, outlining the design in a favourite Pure Ice polish, lime green Wild Thing.

Lily of the Valley

On/off topic here, but when I was a kid, there was a restaurant in my city called The Lily of the Valley.  My grandmother on my dad’s side LOVED to go there – it was very old fashioned and catered perfectly to her preferred dining experience of grilled scallops, two double Manhattans and five extra long Benson and Hedges.  All of the wait staff at The Lily of the Valley were ladies over the age of 65, an impressive push-back against the age discrimination that ran (and continues to run) rampant in the industry.

Sounds amazing, were it not for the fact that those women were the world’s scariest, ball-bustingly nasty jerks to ever sling a plate of roast chicken.  Sweet merciful lord, they were some stone cold bitches, man.  I really hated eating there, because there wasn’t a single server who could contain her loathing for anyone under the age of 60 (and I was a super well behaved kid in restaurants; if I was out with a bunch of adults – that happens all the time when you’re an only child – I’d bring a book for on-the-go entertainment, plus I had a pretty adventurous palette.)  They didn’t even like my parents!

I tried not to look at it as some kind of karmic justice when The Lily of the Valley burnt to the ground some years ago, mostly because those nasty old servers are probably long gone (in the very finalest sense of the word.)  Ah, but the locals say if you listen carefully, you can still hear their disdainful snipes and jeers, as the smoky tang of mentholated extra longs linger in the still night air.  Actually, I’m pretty sure there’s a condo tower where The Lily once stood.  Of course – it’s all condos now.