Bite Beauty Lip Pencil & Amuse Bouche Lipstick: Honeycomb & 020 / Whiskey & 044

Considering that lip products is all they do, I was surprised to learn that Bite Beauty had only just recently rolled out a line of lip liners! Bite's new The Lip Pencil promises creamy coverage that is opaque yet feels lightweight. Unlike other lip liners encased in fancy packaging (think Clinique's Quickliner or Smashbox Always Sharp), Bite chose to go old school with a sleek, wooden barrel that will need sharpening from time to time.

Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche lipstick in Honeycomb & Lip Pencil in 020

In my Influenster VoxBox, I received 020, described as "beige nude", and 044, the deepest colour of the range in a dark burgundy. Both colours are not what I usually wear - thankfully the box also included coordinating Amuse Bouche lipsticks in Honeycomb and Whiskey, otherwise I might have been rocking some seriously mismatched liner/lipstick combos in this post!

Okay, I admit that I almost never use lip liner when I wear lipstick; I kind of like the soft-edged look of an unlined lip (also, lazy). Sooo I'm not all that experienced with lip liners, but I like what I see in Bite's The Lip Pencil. Both pencils glided on smoothly with a creamy matte finish and didn't feel heavy. The pencils were soft enough to impart good coverage without pressing too hard, and didn't crumble or flake bits off during application.

Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche lipstick in Whiskey & Lip Pencil in 044

Looking back & looking forward

February is a little late to be getting all retrospective about the year behind us, but by now I'm sure you are all well aware of the kind of posting schedule I keep >:D

And what better nail polish to include in a post about 2017 than my closest match to Pantone Greenery, 2017's colour of the year? Clinique Hula Skirt is from the 2013 summer collection and a close match to the grassy, yellow-toned Greenery. Buuuut from writing this post, I just found out Clinique no longer sells their nail polish line?? :( Which is a total shame, because I was going to talk about how this polish is so smooth, easy to use, and relatively long wearing. (The matching Clinique base/top coat sucks as a top coat and takes forever to dry though, hence all the smudges.)

2016 was a big year for me - it was the year I started an awesome, new, challenging job and took a big step towards my career goals; it was the year bf and I decided to get married, after being engaged for literally years; it was the year we finally moved in together. So you can see why things have been a little quieter around here lately. After not posting for a few months, I thought about whether I wanted to continue this blog. I started it 7 (!!!!) years ago on Tumblr as a creative outlet and have met so many wonderful people, had amazing opportunities, and made some lifelong friends.

Anyway, I decided I'm not ready to part with it yet! It's still my creative outlet, and I still have so many post ideas always percolating. It is starting to shift more and more away from being strictly a beauty blog to a more personal, "lifestyle" blog, though. Things you'll expect to see this year: a series of wedding planning diaries/tips posts, more fashion nail art, and any other random stuff I manage to churn out. And one way or another, I'm clearing my photo backlog, dammit--it goes back to 2013! Whether that means just finally letting go and deleting stuff that isn't relevant or up to my standards anymore, or being a little kinder to myself and posting something without obsessing over it for hours. Although I might not be able to post so often, and (to fellow bloggers) I might not be able to keep up with my blog roll very well at times, I hope you'll keep reading. Thank you! ♥

Rose Gold on White

New year (sorta), fresh new nails! I thought a simple stripe of Orly Rage would be the perfect addition to a simple test run of a new white polish. (By the way, I bought Rage years ago, and I still think that name is hilarious for a pretty rose gold metallic polish.)

I run out of white nail polish really quickly because I use it so often in nail art, both as a base and accent/detail work. A good white polish is surprisingly hard to come by - OPI Alpine Snow and Sephora Formula X White Matter are my absolute favourites, but I'm not too keen on spending $10+ every couple months for a new one! Shoppers Drug Mart had Ceramic Glaze on sale for $3, so I snapped one up in Pure.

It's not quite on par with Alpine Snow or White Matter, but it's a pretty good white polish for the price. The brush is a little stiff and uneven though, making application not as effortless as the other two. However, the formula is smooth, opaque in two coats, and not too thick or gloppy - you'll be seeing this polish often in future posts!

Happy belated new year to you all! I have so much going on lately and so many blog post ideas for this year - I hope I can find the time to work on them and not go so long in between posts. Tell me how 2017 is going for you so far! (Also, tell me your favourite white polish!)