I felt the sun on my bare ankles and my bare forearms as I went about my business today.  For the first time this spring.  It’s an event that never fails to bring a smile to my face.  Crippling attack of sinusitis notwithstanding.  That’s a story for another day.  I’m on every possible medication for it right now.  It’s been just enough to keep me keeping on this week but I am so looking forward to the weekend and its promise of a bit of a rest and some peace and quiet.  I just need a large dose of sun to rid me of all these bugs.

I love mornings.  I love them with a potentially annoying passion.  I will come to the defence of any morning you claim to hate and not desist until I find that little sliver of the positive (which I will describe to you in great detail or via an Instagram photo).

I don’t discriminate and I’m optimistic about them to a degree I don’t think I could replicate in any other aspect of my daily life.  Even if you’re not a morning person, I don’t think our mornings right now would be a difficult sell.  They brighten up pretty quickly, there’s just a hint of a chill that quickly dissipates, there’s none of the humidity of summer in them yet and they’re especially enjoyable if you get to spend a bit of them roosting under an outdoor heater.  Which is what I was doing today as I waited for my post gym coffee.  Gotta love stay at home mum (and preschooler) Thursdays.

Moving on to a bit of hair and beauty news.

L’Oreal’s Elvive Smooth Intsense serum – out with the old (left) and in with the new (right).

If you’ve been pacing the aisles in a desperate search for a new bottle of L’Oreal’s Elvive serum, breathe a yogic sigh of relief.  It hasn’t been discontinued but rather repackaged.  Reassuringly, the new label has retained the key words and claims of the original. I hope nothing’s changed inside the bottle.

Remember that Maybelline mascara and eyeliner bonus pack I bought the other day?

Back to the eyeliner.  Here’s the bulllet point low down.

Pros:

• great price.
• the barrel’s curved shape is really comfortable in the hand. 
• felt tip applicator is firm but spongy so liner doesn’t apply ‘wet’, patchily or too thickly.
• the black is rich with a slight shimmer and lasts like you wouldn’t believe.  I wore it over primer and some eyeshadow.  It only came off at the end of a long work day with the aid of some shu uemura cleansing oil.
• produces a thick sweeping arc of liner.  It’s best not to overthink the shape of the tip and barrel.  Just angle it the way you normally would against your eyelid and go from there.

Overall:

• I’m really impressed with this eyeliner.  I’ve not had much joy with other liquid eyeliners both in the drugstore price range and beyond at the high end beauty houses.
• I can’t comment yet on how long the product will last as in whether or not it will dry out in the barrel quickly or not.