Friday Finds & Check-ins, Volume #579
Share your recent beauty purchases or rediscovered favorites in your stash (for those on low/no-buys!), chit chat about weekend plans, and learn a little more about each other!
Let's Chat!
Share your own answers in the comments!
- Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: Terra Moons Multichromes, Urban Decay Decades’ Palettes, Dr. Jart Cicapair Cream and Gel, Dr. Jart Ceramidin Cream
- Weekend plans: Photos/swatches, probably on Saturday (though I’m writing this Thursday evening, so depending on how energetic I feel, maybe today) morning. I can’t believe it’s already Friday again. I blinked.
- What’s one recipe you’d love to try?: We watched Julie & Julia recently, so Julia Child’s Beef bourguignon.
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This week's doggo photo/video...
Share your pet photos to the Temptalia Pets flickr group!
Mac Studio Fix Foundation and Powder, Mac blush, Paula’s Choice AHA lotion, antioxidant serum, moisturizer with sunscreen, Cera Ve PM light lotion.
This weekend the boys get to go to the vet for their vaccines.
Love to try Arroz con Pollo .
A big Hug for handsome Mellan from me and the boys.
You get to go in with them, or they are taken in independently, due to Covid? Patticake had a hospitalization for N, V, D, UTI, and dehydration. 2 nights, 3 days. I think it was giardia, but she was treated empirically. Not being able to visit was unbearable. Glad my 2 have a home visit vet. But she’s currently quarantined due to exposure. Hope your guys do well with their shots.
We get to go in since it is 2 dogs otherwise only one client per dog. Thanks.
Wow. We can’t go in at all. Parking lot wait. Excruciating. Glad they’re fine. What are they?
2 yellow Labs.
Purchases/Rediscoveries: New: Kevyn Aucoin Neo Blush in Grapevine; 2 tubes of Embryolisse (the lovely cosmetics clerk at the SDM where I usually shop knew I was looking for this and put 2 aside along with a full sized free bottle of the Rosamelis facial mist); Quo Vented Blending Sponge (for my daughter’s stocking), ELF Line and Define Eye Tape (2 – one for my own stocking and one for my daughter’s); several more tubes of hand cream from the V&A (some for gifts/stocking stuffers and some for me). Rediscoveries: Guerlain Les Fumes quad. What a gorgeous assortment of shadows that is. I used it this past week and plan to use it more in the coming week.
Weekend plans: a friend is coming to stay (she travels here to go to my hairdresser and stays the night); tomorrow morning we have an appointment at a wonderful fabric store we both like – shopping is by appointment only. I want to pick up 2 patterns, some end of bolt fabric and my daughter wants me to pick up some fabric for her. I also have a training session tomorrow morning to get the day off to a good start.
A recipe I’d like to try? I can’t really think of anything – I’ve been cooking for over 40 years and I also taught cooking in high school and now, with the pandemic and not being able to eat out, I’m just fed up with cooking….I want someone not only to cook for me but to do all the thinking about, planning, shopping for the meal! I am looking forward to making Skor shortbreads and also Christmas Crack (the recipe with the saltine crackers, brown sugar, chocolate). I’ve actually never made it before (I have received it as gifts) so maybe THAT is a recipe I’d like to try.
Mariella, I feel the SAME way about cooking. My husband doesn’t enjoy cooking, is a little picky and isn’t good at it, and I have a three year old, so our recipes are limited and I’m SO tired of dinner planning, lol.
I am the exact opposite when it comes to cooking. I enjoy so much being able to plan and cook every meal, prepare almost everything fresh, that I don’t know how I’m going to go back to my old routines, once I won’t work from home and I get to go out more. 😅
I guess for you, having the time to cook during this pandemic has been the novelty. I’ve always cooked from scratch (food and nutrition teacher here!) and fitting in with the needs/tastes of 3 children and their activities as well as a fussy eater husband who also has some potentially life threatening food allergies. So “that” has been my old routine for 4 decades – FOUR DECADES!!!! I do enjoy baking because THAT is the novelty for me – I do it when I want, when the mood takes me and I don’t have to do it every day and then start thinking about the next day before I’ve even got today’s dishes cleared away!!!
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: Em Cosmetics Holiday Set, I was expecting to love the blush and mascara, but the lipliner has been the surprise star of the holiday set! Essence No More Panda Eyes mascara, such a good mascara regardless of price. This mascara was the best discovery of 2020.
Weekend plans: Wrapping Christmas Presents, working out, calling friends & family
What’s one recipe you’d love to try? Samosas from scratch
Samosas sound challenging! That would be a real crowd-pleaser if you got the recipe down.
Hi Mellan! Bye Mellan!
Purchases: I ordered the Blithe Vital Treatment 5 Roots toner/essence from Yesstyle, after really enjoying my sample. It should get here right as my Cosrx essence runs out. 😀 I also ordered the I’m From mugwort mask in a small size to try out. When I got my mom stocking stuffers from Sydney Grace, I may have snuck in the Paris Skies blush for myself lol. I received it yesterday and love it already.
Werkend plans (I meant to type “weekend” but this works too): finishing up Christmas presents! I’m making my major ones and need to arrange smaller gifts.
Recipe I’d love to try: Oxtail stew. Mom showed me her battered Joy of Cooking book and that’s the recipe I zeroed in on for whatever reason lol. I’ve been nailing my lemon meringue pie lately buuuut still trying to refine my crust.
Meaning you should have put the Cosrx on your YesStyle order? Ooops. I really want to try some mugwort, as it has good anti-inflammatory effects. You brought up what is very hot right now KB and AB hair! Some day….
Actually I got the Cosrx snail essence from Ulta! I liked the Blithe sample so much that I thought I’d try that next, rather than immediately repurchase the Cosrx. I just wanted to time the transition exactly because that’s how I am lol. I can’t wait to try the mugwort.
Cosrx: ulta first, Amazon second, Asian American third, and Yesstyle a distant fourth. YS shut down my cards (out of profile) more than once, and it did not help to call/allow it. Still happened. Finally figured out that Amazon card seems to have very few parameters. I still alternate the Cosrx snail with the very ‘entry level KB’ Mizon , 2:1. Since Centella is my middle name, lots of Purito, too.
That little cheerful trot just made my day a bit brighter!
Purchases/ rediscoveries: Well, upon purchasing MAC’s holiday lipstick in Heart Goes Boom at FULL price at the Arrowhead location and then finding out online that it too was on sale, I ordered another and am bringing back the unused tube for my overinflated price paid! I also ordered Set Me Off Lipglass while I was at it. Nothing like an icy lilac gloss for winter!
Deeply been rediscovering my PML Midnight Sun Mothership and Bronze Seduction one recently a lot, too.
Weekend Plans: Hopefully, I sleep well and can then enjoy my Saturday Zoom meeting. Last night, I finally got through a full 8 hours of sleep straight since my sweet Scunci died. (I cannot believe it’s been an entire month without him!) I still miss him so much that it makes my heart hurt, but life has begun to fall back into place, I suppose. Only other plan is bringing back that lipstick and doing some laundry.
Recipe you’d like to learn how to cook? A from scratch apple pie! I am dead serious on this one. I have NO idea how to do it. I tried one time many years ago. Accidentally read the amount of salt as the amount of sugar….I was so mad at myself! But my ex thought it was hilarious and told me not to be so hard on myself, that everyone effs up from time to time and there would be another time to try. But there never was never another trip back up to the orchard together.
I am so sorry for your loss Nancy.
My fave apple pie was from a c.b. of my grandmother’s, Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah….Dinah Shore. The book sounded geeky even way back then, but the apple pie, cubed tart ones, with OJ (for real,) nutmeg, and a lattice work crust was TDF. Glad you can sleep right through at last. Did Scunci sleep with you? It’s so hard, esp when your pets are your only family, like me.
I think of your Scunci when I pet my Fuzzy and Marley.I make a great apple pie. Mom showed me way back when.
Recent Purchases: Milk Makeup Flex Highlighter in Lit, Kaleidos Space Age Prophecy Highlighter.
Rediscoveries: Nothing in particular, though I recently used the shade Sponsored from the ABH Jackie Aina palette as a one and done eyeshadow look and it was SO lovely. I should probably use that palette more before decluttering it.
Weekend plans: We are on the last couple of days of quarantine, woohoo! It ends Sunday, so we are going over to my mother in law’s house to celebrate my husbands birthday… I know this will be a hard birthday and Christmas for him and my mother in law because of my father in law passing.
What’s one recipe you’d love to try?: My aunt that lives in Alaska is going to send me all of my late grandmas cookie recipes and I’m SO excited to bake all of them and reminisce.
Sponsored turned out to be the star of that palette.
Julie & Julia was wonderful! Julia Child was so lovely and her recipes were a big in helping me get started with home cooking. Her simple 30 second omelette recipe (which I add cheese to) is such a classic too.
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: Pat McGrath – Lip Fetish balm in Passion Flower, and Lust Gloss in Flesh 6 on sale.
Weekend plans: Work, and then finish the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
What’s one recipe you’d love to try?: I want to try to make Cheung Fun (腸粉) (a simple rolled rice noodle) from scratch, and this winter I’d love to make congee with chinese donut (Youtiao 油条).
Interesting. I always found JC’s recipes to be messy. Hundred pot messy. Always preferred Dione Lucas. Way BITD, before she left Cambridge for California, JC had a public tv show with the kitchen set in the Prudential. My dad’s office was there and you could….just go, and watch. Significant tippling. A lot. Dropped the gigot on the floor, swung it up, swatted it with her hand, and replaced it in the pan. Eeeek, really? Not even rinsed? One of my school friends was an exec (French) chef in the Boston area and JC was helpful to her career, though ultimately always upstaged her. Gioia eventually left the field, after getting her MBA. I think of JC much the way I think of Elvis. Highly influential, a groundbreaker, revolutionized the field, but I really can’t say I’m a fan.
I love her warm, approachable personality 🙂
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: Iunik Calendula Complete Cleansing Oil and Purito Galacto Niacinamide Essence
Weekend plans: Nothing in particular.
What’s one recipe you’d love to try? I can’t answer this question. My decisions about what to cook are random these days. My online recipe boxes have over a thousand recipes saved plus I own many cookbooks and have binders full of recipes. No way I can narrow it down to one.
Agreed!
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: None.
Weekend plans: Rain is on th forecast for the weekend, so unfortunately hiking plans are not in the book. I’ll just do my weekly grocery shopping, clean around the house, call my mom, walk around the neighborhood, return a gateway (I switched network providers), read something light like a detective novel, and try not to be in a gloomy mood. With California in lockdown probably until next year, my vague plans of going somewhere for the holidays (at least Tahoe or Yosemite, to see the snow) are not even possible.
What’s one recipe you’d love to try? I have some extra pumpkin from my morning oatmeal, and I want to try a pumpkin polenta. Over the weekend I want to make a Causa Rellena, just to prepare something fun.
Hope you’re hanging in there! A lot of my California friends and family are feeling glum because of the order. A detective novel sounds like a great fun thing to escape into.
Mellan has such a cute trot!
Purchases/rediscoveries: None this week!
Weekend plans: I took today off so I could take a bead embroidery class and it was so much fun! Bead embroidery is one of my favorite techniques but this was a completely different application of it and I am feeling pretty inspired 🙂
Tomorrow Daisy has a vet appointment to do some more tests to try to figure out what is going on with her sinuses. It was supposed to be today but one of the testing machines had to be repaired 😛 So that threw off our other plan for tomorrow. Oh well. Daisy is more important!
I also have dance class tomorrow, a finger cymbal workshop Sunday, and a virtual whiskey tasting later on Sunday. I really overscheduled myself this week, I had an online event every day!
A recipe I would like to try: I want to make hot chocolate from scratch and add Green Chartreuse. I’ve seen a couple different recipes for it. I think I’ll finally do it tomorrow. I also want to try making my own boba teas, I have a whole book on them, but I haven’t gone to the Asian grocery store for the good tapioca balls. That will probably wait for warmer weather.
I read this as “fire cymbal workshop” and was like what… 😂
LOLOL. That would be more my brother’s thing, he does fire spinning and actually works at a place that makes fire spinning props. They have made fire umbrellas and a giant fire pachinko machine and all sorts of other weird things but I haven’t heard about fire cymbals yet… still wouldn’t put it past some drummer though 😀
😅😅
Could you tell me where/ how you do the virtual testing? I Googled it but the places I found looked hella sketchy.
I’ve been doing all of them through the Seattle Cocktail Club. I tried to find ones for outside of Seattle to do as a gift for family and it does seem to be hard to find something affordable for the general consumer — most brands seem to either want you to schedule it as a large group event (like for your whole office or something), or have you go buy full-size bottles, which gets expensive fast!
Your best bet might be to see if any local distilleries in your area offer them — For my family I found a distillery near them that was shipping in-state. It was more expensive than the events I’ve been doing but the tasting kit included much larger bottles so they’ll have spirits to enjoy after the tasting, too.
Mellon looks like he knows exactly where he is going!
I hope your MIL’s place is starting to get fixed after the flooding and the paperwork is being sorted. Such a lot of work for all of you at this time too.
Recent Purchases: Nada –
Rediscoveries: Just been using up my favourite shades of Naked 1 – Toasted, Smog and Sidecar.
Weekend Plans: Not a lot. I have had a really bad cold this week (not Covid – was tested, isolated and negative), so I will be slowly catching up with everything around the house. We have yet to put up our Christmas tree, so I will do that at the weekend, if I get around to tidying up the space (still full of Lego since my grandson was here earlier on in the week). My youngest son’s family have been unwell too – they are all covid negative too – which is good news.
Our weather has been so up and down lately – you can never put away your winter clothes in Melbourne, that’s for sure.
One recipe you would like to try: I am always on the lookout for really interesting salads, especially for Christmas day, so I will be looking for those in the coming days. I enjoy a good beef bourguignon too Christine, so I will check out that recipe.
I am the cook in the family – my husband is clueless, so when I was sick it was either some home delivery or sandwiches! Having cooked so, so much during the pandemic for our own family and for my son’s family, I am all done in.
I hope you feel better soon! Enjoy good take-away…sounds like you have earned it!
Get well soon, Genevieve.. Thank goodness not covid!
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: Sydney Grace Happy Accident is finally mine! I swatched it but haven’t worn it yet! It’s so gorgeous.
Weekend plans: Finishing holiday decorating in the house tomorrow, picking up groceries and mail packages from the post office on Sunday!
What’s one recipe you’d love to try?: I’ve never made vegetarian lasagna and would love to try
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: No purchases, although the sunscreen from my YesStyle order got cancelled because of a recent controversy with another sunscreen made from the same lab. So I need to find another sunscreen, maybe from Ulta instead? Because my YesStyle order isn’t slated to arrive until at least January, and placing another order who knows when that’ll ship
Weekend plans: Northern California’s new restrictions have halted any weekend plans my family had. We usually have a “collective” birthday dinner this weekend for my aunt, my recently passed grandfather, and my cousin who all have birthdays within a week from each other, but because of restrictions it can’t happen
What’s one recipe you’d love to try?: I can’t cook while I’m living at my parents’ house cause my mom insists on being in charge of all the cooking, but I’m saving up a little stockpile of recipes to try when I can live on my own. Probably the thing I’m most excited for is trying to make my own lasagna, I never had a dish to bake it in when I was in the dorm
Recent purchase: I found two pigments from ABH: Daiquiri and Crystal at Marshall’s. I also picked up a Kaja Bento Trio in Orange Blossom there too. I’m awaiting the Vintage Rose palette from Give Me Glow that I purchased during Black Friday!
Rediscovery: I’ve been loving MAC loose pigment in Kitchmas. Just have loving sparkly pinky lavender shades recently!
Weekend Plans: I don’t have many plans. I need to make my daughter a Slytherin No Sew for Christmas.
Recipe I want to try: crockpot hot chocolate
Recent Purchases: Used up my expiring Ulta points on a mini It Cosmetics CC+ Cream. Got it and a little lotion down to $4. 🙂 The lightest shade for the gift set is too dark and orange for me. Out of curiosity, I tried my years-favorite foundation, and it’s way too dark, too. I guess there’s not a lot of point to color matching new complexion products during the quarantine…zero sun!
Rediscoveries: Urban Decay Midnight Cowboy, an old Ulta birthday gift. It has glittery fallout, but it’s such a pretty champagne. Usually if I want a pale sparkly topper, I just go for Space Cowboy, but Midnight’s pigmentation comes through more and is special enough to warrant its own attention.
Weekend plans: Sew some more cute face masks for my family.
What’s one recipe you’d love to try?: Skillet chocolate chip cookie. Come to think of it, I have everything I need already…