Hello again!

Sergio Rola - Unsplash

I'm back from my break! I am a bad blogger for taking an (unannounced) break from the online makeup world, so apologies are in order. I have some posts planned that will be up soon - keep posted for my 2015 favorites, a new series on destashing and decluttering, and some reviews.

I took a break for a few reasons. First and foremost, I had lots of family events in December and January and my husband and I took a (long for us) trip to see family around the holidays. I absolutely adore our families and was excited to take time to visit, read books, play board games, and stay far away from my computer and phone. In fact, I didn't even take my laptop with me on my trip! On the positive side, I packed makeup I loved for my trip and many of those items are in my 2015 favorites.

Second, through the tail end of 2015, I have been working on focusing my collection, destashing, and trimming down my beauty spending. I gave a lot of products to my sister, who is an ideal recipient of items that don't work for me - her skin is warmer, a shade deeper, and shares my shade preferences for color products. I was happy to re-home lots of products to her and I also tossed expired products  and sold some on online. I do plan to publish a few blog posts I wrote about strategies for trimming down collections and reducing beauty spending.

Finally, I took a break from the online makeup world because it stopped being interesting to me. I think it is natural to wax and wane in makeup interest, but I felt like the online beauty community began to feel like a pundit echo chamber. I trimmed down my YouTube subscriptions, accounts I follow on Instagram, and blogs I follow. Over 2015, I have learned more about the type of content I value vs. the type I don't and I think it is natural that my media consumption has followed that. My focus now is on people who seem discerning and detailed - I just don't have the time and patience for Trendmood style hype or  Morphe code pushing gurus or I'm So Obsessed Seriously favorites.

Long story short, I'm back and excited to get back to blogging! I've been reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld and watching The Great British Bake Off lately, and for some reason this picture by Sergio Rola felt right for me right now. I hope all of you had a great holiday season!