May Band of Bloggers

May, May, May.  Welcome back ‘ol friend!  May is a turning point in the year for a lot of people.  The school year is almost over, summer is coming soon, and those mild months will still become scorchers.  The birthstone of May is the emerald, which symbolizes love and success.  This month, we’re focusing on these two things!

We all love something with all our hearts, so tell us what you love the most.  It could be the story of how you met your spouse/significant other, where you got your pet, or a nod to your parental units.

Had this prompt arrived in my inbox this time last week, I probably would have gleefully – and loudly – proclaimed COLD MEDS!!! to be my most favourite thing ever.  When you’re ill, they can be *just* the thing to get you up and on your feet (or partially hunched over and swaying, if you don’t overdo it.)  But I REALLY overdid it last weekend, optimistically snarfing down half a box of something that promised to banish my flu to the Land of Tissues and Cough Suppressant.  It, of course, did no such thing!  I just kept sneezing and coughing, sneezing and coughing.  The only difference was now?  I was LOADED.  Higher than I’ve ever been in my life, and not in a pleasant way – more in the “I can’t feel my tongue/Why are these neon fish swimming outside my window?” sort of way.  Can’t say I loved that very much, particularly as I’m now side-eyeing any and all cold meds like they’re pure poison.

But you know what I did love about my lost weekend?  The order confirmation that showed up from Sephora on Sunday morning informing me that at some point on Saturday night, I placed a not-insubstantial order for, well, a lot of shimmery blue makeup!  Items I had once placed on my wishlist as a bit of a lark (the aforementioned shimmery blue lipstick, a holographic powder palette, colour-shifting liquid metal-type eye shadow) were now speeding their way across Canada, directly into my hot (still so hot) little hands, and I had ZERO memory of having sat down and even made the order in the first place.

I’ve never shopped whilst intoxicated before, so this was definitely a new one for me.  Well, there was that time just out of university that my friend and I got (let’s not mince words) tanked and then went to the mall to see a movie, only for me to get completely waylaid by a catastrophically ugly $3,000 dress in the window of a nearby shop that I apparently needed to have RIGHT THEN.  But I certainly didn’t buy that dress, nor did I sneak back in the dead of night and surreptitiously purchase it under cover of hungover darkness.  Can’t say the same about my blue makeup bonanza!

Actually, there’s not much I can say about it at all, having apparently lost that bit of institutional shopping knowledge to the ever-shifting sands of accidental inebriation.  But unlike the $3,000 dress, I’ve got a use and a purpose for all these pie-in-the-sky goodies, and the story alone – hell, just the visual of me sitting there, eyes two tiny, watery slits, congested gob wide open, chin three inches off the keyboard – is a great one that I’m compelled to share!  My incredible weirdness is your entertainment gain!

Ultimately, though, there was really no harm done here, and no foul either, this accidental bounty covered by some leftover birthday mad money.  I might not be chuckling quite so heartily if I had blown through actual budgeted funds, but as a one-off, I love it.  It is the thing I love the most right now. 🙂

In terms of success and keeping it blog-related, have you ever participated in and/or completed a “project wax” or spring wax/perfume/makeup/scented product purge?  Have you ever bought so much product you felt the need to use it all up before you bought again?

No to all of the above, an odd little bit of responsible adulting I chalk up to a couple of different factors – an overall lack of storage space in my apartment condo and my own deep, abiding desire to NOT have my death certificate read “Crushed to death by expired Lush shit.”  So I only ever tend to have on hand that which I can and do use.

We hope you visit these Band of Bloggers blogs and help support the blogger community!

Amanda at Thrifty Polished

Jaybird at The Candle Enthusiast

Jessica at The Meltdown Blog

Julie at The Redolent Mermaid

Lauren at LoloLovesScents

Liz at Furianne

Sandra – me! – at Finger Candy

If you are a blogger and would like to join the Band of Bloggers for our monthly posts, please feel free to contact us!

Sunny Side Up: A Sniff Test

A couple of weeks ago I received a lovely, small haul of roll-on cuticle oils from Sunny’s Body Products, an indie manufacturer and retailer I’ve mentioned numerous times before on this blog. Sunny’s gets all my nail care love (her cuticle oils are the only product I actually use; we are the next best thing to hand care Luddites here at Finger Candy HQ) first and foremost because her oil blends are soothing, smoothing and nourishing, secondly because her roll-on applicators (my preferred method of oil distribution) are well-made and blessedly leak-free, but mostly because she offers very nearly all of her products in over 500 different scents, 20 or so of which I’ve tried and find absolutely delightful.

So given that I’ve said just about all the good things I can on the subject of the base products, I thought it would be a fun little exercise to do a sniff test on some of the scents themselves that I think take Sunny’s products from great, to absolute must-haves.

First up on the docket is Blueberry Cheesecake, which I purchased as part of a trio of sampler roll-on cuticle oils. On Sunny’s list of scent descriptions (an extensive, fun-to-peruse document) Blueberry Cheesecake is described as “Fresh from the dessert menu, creamy cheesecake with plump sweet blueberries in sauce, spilling over.” This one is Mr. Finger Candy’s favourite, and it’s heavenly (it’s not a totally uncommon occurrence around here to see me sniffing my fingers, Mary Katherine Gallagher-style.) I love blueberry scents, and this one is extra lovely, with an almost tea-type note amidst all that berry goodness. And while cheesecake scents can often err on the side of sour, this one is sweet and unobtrusive – just a sweet little something to round off the juiciness of the berries.

Next up is Donut Shop, a scent I used as the inspiration for a manicure during the recent Oh Mon Dieu Nail Art Challenge. Sunny describes the scent on her site as “The scent of fresh baked donuts when you walk into your favorite donut shop.” I mentioned then – and the scent-iment remains – that Donut Shop smells nothing like any donut shop I’ve ever been in (which to me always smell like yeast, frosting, coffee and a vague hint of middle-of-the-night, fluorescent-lit loneliness.) To me, it smells like the perfume my best friend wore in high school, Parfum d’Été by Kenzo, offset by a hint of something sweet and rich and delicious. Donut Shop is actually quite complex, and one of those scents that will smell different on every person it touches (clearly, if I think it smells like my friend’s fresh floral perfume crossed with a muffin.) Confusion over nomenclature aside, Donut Shop is a gorgeous, unique scent that will please bakery lovers and scent traditionalists alike.

The third scent, which closes out my trio of mini samplers, is Blackberry Scone, a relatively recent addition to Sunny’s scented line-up. In the description document Blackberry Scone is described as “Notes of freshly picked blackberries are complemented by hints of boysenberries & raspberries and nuances of buttery, warm crust.” This is another one of those scents that maybe should have been given a second pass through the name generator, because the scone element is totally missing. I will concede that taste in scents is a highly subjective and personal thing, but this isn’t a matter of preference – I actually quite like the scent of Blackberry Scone. It just smells nothing like a baked good. Instead, Blackberry Scone smells fresh and green and crisp – like a summer salad sprinkled with blackberries. That I like it very much has turned out to be a big surprise – I’m typically not one for fresh-type smells, and Blackberry Scone definitely errs on the side of veggie. Still, a lovely scent that marries well with its more bakery-minded order mates.

The final scent I chose was Poison Pie, which I purchased in a full size roll-on after burning through my mini bottle earlier this year. Poison Pie, a seasonal scent from last year’s Halloween-themed beauty box, is described as “The aroma of freshly picked blueberries, fresh cut granny smith apples, smothered in butter, cream, and cinnamon, with a background of fresh baked crust.” Sounds delicious, smells even better – exactly like my mom’s kitchen after she’s tossed apples, sugar, flour and cinnamon together for pies. It’s quite uncanny how that memory (not much of a memory, actually, as she makes me pies every couple of weeks) comes to mind when I smell Poison Pie. It’s so delicious and I love it. And look at that adorable little label!

In the final analysis, though, scent is a highly subjective sense, and what smells amazing to me may cause your nostrils to turn tail and run, and vice versa. My advice is to get out there and play the field – order a mixed bag of scents, ones both in and a little bit out of your wheelhouse, and see what strikes your fancy. As always, you can purchase Sunny’s products through her website here.