Friday Finds & Check-ins, Volume #577

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!

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Share your own answers in the comments!

  • Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: Zoya & Essie top coats/base coats (I pretty much gave up 95% of all nail-related products I had, so I actually needed these!).
  • Weekend plans: Writing reviews, entering dupes… the usual!
  • What are some things you’re thankful for this year?: I’m really thankful that my family is in good health! I’m thankful that Mellan looks like he’ll make it to another birthday.

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Kira Avatar

Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: Purchase – Pat McGrath Loose powder. Thinking of picking up MAC brushes on sale, but I don’t want the bag that gets added to my cart right now, so I’m waiting until after Black Friday.
Rediscovery – trying Korean-beauty inspired looks with the MAC x Pony Park Hocus Pocus eyeshadow palette.

Weekend plans: Viewing party my friend organized for the movie “Falls Around Her”

What are some things you’re thankful for this year?: Thankful for my partner and best friends, for the trees and city critters that have helped me feel connected to nature during this time, and for dance playlists and white noise soundtracks to suit the mood 😉

Nancy T Avatar

Water therapy probably feels really good!
Purchases/ rediscoveries: Nothing beauty related purchased. Rediscovered just how badly I miss wearing tube lipstick! My lips are all torn up from wearing dry-down liquid matte lipsticks.

Weekend Plans: Just running up to Old Navy to exchange a few items that upon getting them home a few weeks ago, realized they weren’t my thing. Zoom meeting tomorrow morning. Nothing else planned.

What have you been thankful for this year? I’ve been deeply thankful for every single person who contributed to my wonderful, now departed Scunci’s veterinary care, special supplements and palliative care. Also, I’m very thankful towards the wonderful, hard working veterinary team over at AZ Pet Vet Arrow Pet Grooming and Hospital for the excellent care and tenderness that they showed my beloved kitty and me. I’m also thankful that I’m becoming a grandmother a 4th time around!

Genevieve Avatar

What happy news Nancy – there is nothing like a new baby arriving to lift your spirits, especially at this very difficult time for you. I hope that everyone is well.
Vet teams are wonderful people and they not only take care of the animals but also their owners too.

Celesta Avatar

Recent Purchases: A few Sydney Grace singles(my first time trying SD pressed eyeshadows), the Sweet & Sticky palette from Give Me Glow and Christmas Gifts.

Rediscoveries: My Hourglass Ambient Lighting Ghost Unlocked palette. It’s so pretty and so nice to have all my powder base products in one spot.

Weekend plans: Lots of family time.

What are some things you’re thankful for this year?

AJ Avatar

Mellan is so cute on the treadmill 🙂 Daisy would never stand for that, she hates water!

Purchases: Nothing beauty-related. Right now all my shopping is focused on holiday gifts and replacing some worn-out electronics.

Rediscoveries: Cracked open my Melt Impulsive palette for a quick swipe of eye shadow yesterday and I really do want to explore that one more, there’s so many pretty colors in it!

Weekend plans: I took a half-day on Wednesday so it’s been an ultra-long weekend! Weds we picked up some special fancy doughnuts we had pre-ordered and drove to a friend’s house to have a socially distanced porch hangout. Yesterday Chris cooked a nice steak dinner for the two of us, and I made dessert cocktails. Today Daisy had her monthly vet visit, and I think we’ll split the rest of the day between relaxing and cleaning up yesterday’s kitchen mess. I need to shop for a new phone later. Going to try to wrap up the rest of my (online) holiday shopping and maybe prepare some of the gifts that have already arrived to be shipped along to their recipients. Chris has promised to plan some sort of takeout outing for the weekend. I think we’ll have to do a curbside Target pickup. So nothing really exciting.

What am I thankful for: I’m so glad we moved from our apartment to a (rental) house last year, it’s so nice to have space and privacy during the pandemic, and to not have to dodge a lot of other people on Daisy’s walks.

AJ Avatar

Our new place is about a mile (1.6km) from our old place, so not really! It might technically have a different neighborhood designation but we are still off of the same major road and shop and eat (or get takeout, lol) at all of the same places. It made moving really easy! We were able to take most stuff over in our car whenever we wanted to (we had a 2 week overlap on our leases) and then when it was time to move furniture we rented a truck and made one trip that was so short that the rental company was like “Did you even drive it at all?” (it was farther to drive the truck to and from the rental place than between the two homes, LOL).

Our apartment complex was nice as far as such things go, but I LOVE our big yard with mature trees. When we told the management that we would not be renewing our lease and that we were moving into a house with a big yard for Daisy, even they couldn’t fault our decision!

Arena Avatar

Loving Mellon, sending him and his human family best wishes and ling life this holiday season 💕

Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: I found sales y’all 😳 Sweater for myself and dear hubby at Really Wild….Skin care from Beauty Pie….BIBA at 30% off from ND (has been on my wishlist forEVER)…..polish from Static Nails (40% off)…..I think I stopped there.

So then I promptly created my 2021 Project Pan.
I will be panning the UD3 palette the entire year and rotating one palette to complement each month. I also have a full-face rolling project pan of odds and ends that need to be completed. (Why do I have 8 concealers????)

Weekend plans: Working with newly weaned baby horses. Eating leftovers. Reading “the Alienist”

What are some things you’re thankful for this year?: My husband. My family and friends. All the critters. Our health. Toilet paper. 😂

Genevieve Avatar

How lovely to be working with horses Arena. My daughter in law’s parents have a large property up in Kinglake – which is a mountain region north of Melbourne. They have recently purchased a minature Welsh pony, named Shimmer. Olivia, my granddaughter, is over the moon about this pony and will be spending all of her weekends up there learning how to take care of her. It’s such a beautiful feeling you get taking care of these animals.

Ana Maria Avatar

Recent Purchases: I was waiting for the MAC Black Friday sale, and when the email for 30% off came in I quickly ordered the Prolongwear Concealer (my current one is almost empty) and Coppertone (to replace one of my blushes that expires in January). I might make a small Paula’s Choice order, but otherwise I don’t need anything beauty wise.

Rediscoveriess: None.

Weekend plans: Being outdoors as much as possible and relaxing through nature. Today I went to a wild beach, hiked the cliffs for about 3 hours. Tomorrow maybe I will visit some redwoods.
This weekend is pretty hard. I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but each year I took the days off to visit family back in Europe. This year is not possible, and all those Facebook notifications from previous years messed me up.
But I talked last night with my grandparents, my mom and I chatted for the full hour it took me to drive to the beach this morning, and I hope to also talk tomorrow with my brother… so… I’ll just try to keep myself busy.

What are some things you’re thankful for this year? I am truly thankful that my family is healthy, none of them got sick. And I am not talking about the virus only; my grandparents have several health problems, but getting health care is almost impossible in my home country during the pandemic. I am very thankful they didn’t require hospitalization this year and I am thankful for my mom taking so great care of them during lockdowns, curfews and restrictions.

Genevieve Avatar

How happy Mellon looks on his water treadmill – what a great idea.

Recent Purchases: Nada. I really do have so much makeup….
Rediscoveries: I started using Naked 3 in conjunction with colours from other palettes: Damaged from Vice 2, Lapis Luxury from PMG etc. A beautifully versatile palette.

Weekend Plans: We have had our grandchildren over a lot in the past few days, so our family room floor is awash with lego, brio and Olivia’s art creations (you know the little bits that are cut out from making snowflakes? – yep – lots and lots of those), so a bit of tidying up is due.
Friday night we were able to go out for dinner for the first time in months and it was delicious. The restaurants have to have limited numbers and two evening sittings and we took the later one.
Saturday – I was all set to get stuck into some ironing, when my youngest son rang and asked if we would like to go out for lunch at a favourite hotel in the local hills. Ironing promptly left aside and we are now going out. What a great way to start the weekend.
Sunday – now I really have to get stuck into all the housework.

What I have to be thankful for: Like you Christine, I am really so thankful for my lovely family and my three blessed grandchildren – that we are all safe and well. I am thankful for living where I do, which is a well run country and in my neck of the woods – close to forests and mountains.
I am also very thankful for this wonderful online beauty community that you have created Christine and I am really thankful for the extraordinary work that you do. Thankyou.

Nikki Avatar

This is the earliest I’ve ever been for a Friday Finds!
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: One of my uncles dropped a birthday gift on my porch yesterday-a box of Paris Hilton Gold Rush and Rosé Rush body mists. I found out this week that the UD Tiger’s Eye liner looks amazing on the undereye in lieu of shadow!
Weekend plans: Just errands, actually-in another attempt to slow the COVID spread, the library system I work for is temporarily closing for Black Weekend!
What are some things you’re thankful for this year?: I’m thankful that my family and I are all staying healthy and (so far) dodging the virus. I’m thankful that we’ve been able to (mostly) adapt to the current virus situation.

brendacr1 Avatar

Good for Mellan getting his therapy in!
Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: GloPro Scalp Micro Tip for my microneedling tool, if it works on my scalp as good as it works on my skin I will have beautiful thick shiny hair soon lol!
Weekend plans: We are getting our new garage door tomorrow, it will make the front of our house look so nice! We can’t wait! Trying some more gourmet meals, I’ve been cooking up a storm and killing it in the kitchen. I love cooking and the more time I spend in the kitchen the more I love it.
What are some things you’re thankful for this year?: Our health, our families’ health and slowing down and enjoying being in the moment. Going for long walks, not rushing everywhere because everything has slowed down. Reconnecting on a different level with my kids.

brendacr1 Avatar

My husband always orders Veal Bosciaola at our favorite Italian Restaurant, so I was watching the Rachel Ray Show and she was making a variation of it with different kinds of mushrooms, so I made it and he raved about it. Then I felt I would push the envelope and make Chicken Linguine and even though he doesn’t like Parmesan cheese he even had a second helping! Last night the Beef Wellington I made was melt in your mouth. So who knows what I will pick for this coming week, I haven’t made cabbage rolls for a while that would be a great dish to start the week out with. I’m just getting very bored with the same old recipes and need a bit of variety.

Marie Avatar

I haven’t worn make up in months due to Covid and a crippling disease of which I’m still recovering (I will be healthy again, but boy, those surgeries this year really knocked me).
I’m thankful I survived, it was colon cancer. My husband, daughter, her beautiful partner and my grandchild where all there, and we will celebrate christmas like there’s no tomorrow 😉 We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here in the Netherlands 😉

Because of that I decided to splurge for when I go all mayhem again with make up. So bf was for me the Love palette from ND, ABH Norvina and Sultry. Before bf was on I already bought the Glam and the Stone Fox palette (you got to love those cool tones once they are sold again don’t you?)
I’ve bought sports towels and travel towels for in our (to be bought in spring) campervan.
I am contemplating a pair of pixie boots.

Weekend plans is rumbling around the house and go out for walks with me treasured playlist from Spotify.

Genevieve Avatar

Wow – you have really had a difficult year Anne Marie. Colon cancer is so serious and painful, plus having all those surgeries. Thank goodness you have survived and that your loving family were around to support you. Having a grandchild is a blessing. I am sure your Christmas celebrations will be fabulous.
I have both ND’s Glam and Sultry and adore both palettes and I think the Stone Fox palette would suit you too. Take care Anne Marie.

Kimberly Avatar

Recent Purchases/Rediscoveries: I went a little crazy with online beauty shopping for Black Friday. On YesStyle I bought the romand Glasting Water Tint in “Vintage Ocean”, and also a refill of my sunscreen because the order is not expected to ship until a month from now. On Sephora I bought my first PML products! The Mothership Rose Decadence was on sale and I also got one of the lipstick trios. This might not seem like a lot but in non-beauty purchases I got the Samsung S20 Ultra from a deal at Best Buy so with everything combined I did some damage. For rediscoveries I’m not sure if Colourpop still sells the Super Shock Shadow “All In” but it’s a great fall burgundy magenta shade that works both on its own or paired with other warm-toned palettes

Weekend plans: Catch up on editing and posting NaNoWriMo vlogs, also planning December’s content, I’m going to make December a heavy beauty month since October and November focused heavily on writing due to NaNoWriMo

What are some things you’re thankful for this year?: I can be so negative sometimes, but I really do have a lot to be thankful for. Other than my grandfather passing away, everyone in my family’s healthy, no one’s caught COVID, other than myself nobody lost their job, due to lockdown I’ve been able to spend more time with my sister, and even though I haven’t seen any of friends since March we can always text or Zoom

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