From Me to Myself

Next week at this time, we'll all be waiting for Santa to visit, and the ultimate day of anticipation will be nearly over.  I love Christmas Eve, as much as I love Christmas Day, to be honest.

Over the years, I've asked for some cosmetics or perfumes for Christmas, but I am pretty sure that The Tim doesn't think they are good gifts, since I can buy them for myself.  I finally decided that if I want anything like that, I'll just save up and buy it for myself and not think it can only be at Christmastime.

This year, I have decided I will treat myself to a NARS Audacious Lipstick.  I love lipstick, but seldom do I buy any expensive ones.  As a matter of fact, most that I have are gift-with-purchase ones, or samples that came with some other promotion.  But I've seen a few magazine articles in the last few months, and have read some beauty blogs where they have talked about the  Audacious Lipsticks, and I have really wanted to try them out.

I am trying to decide what shade to try, though.  I like Audrey:

but also Brigitte:

and even Fanny:

Of course, by the time I have saved enough to treat myself, I may have just changed my mind altogether!

What about you?  Do you ever received cosmetic gifts, or do you buy them for yourself?

The Good. The Bad. The Verdict.

I keep reading how wonderful various serums are supposed to be, and that you should use them as part of your beauty routine.  A couple of months ago, I had a gift card from Macy's that was burning a hole in my pocket.  Having read a lot of good reviews about it, I decided to purchase Clinique Smart Custom-Repair Serum and give it a try.  My skin tends to be blotchy, and one of the things this product claimed to do was even out skin tone.  So I purchased the smaller size (1 oz.), and took it home to try.

The Good:  This is a lovely product!  A nice, light, smooth lotion that comes out of a pump bottle.  I decided I would only use this at night, and I used two pumps each time (which covered my face, but with a very light layer).  Well, it is a great product!  No discernible scent, easily absorbed, and very refreshing to use.  My face felt soft after application, and any moisturizer I used went on very easily after letting the serum set for a minute or so.

The Bad:  I was very conservative in the amounts I pumped out of the bottle, and this only lasted 22 days!  Not even a whole month, and granted it was the smaller size - but not a travel size or anything like that.  I could not believe it.  The small size retails for $59.50, which is not inexpensive, by any means.  Using the BMST, this product costs approximately $2.70 per use.  That seems on the spendy side, if you ask me.   Granted, I have not used any other serums to compare.   But if I wanted to continue using this, I might try the larger size to see how it compares, though I fear it may be the same or worse.

The Verdict:  Well, I have come to the conclusion that I would need to try one or two others in order to compare - maybe a high-end one, and an drugstore one - to have it be a fair fight.  However, I'm not 100% convinced that I actually *need* to use a serum.  As I said, I liked what it did to my skin, and how it felt, etc., but I've gone this long without using one and my skin is actually not that bad.  So until and unless I have another gift card, I think I'll just go back to my usual routine, because frankly, $2.70 per use seems ridiculous for something that, at best, is an add-on, even if it does help my skin a bit.

So there you go.  Have you tried any new products lately?  What did you think?