Thursday Thoughts...

Alright, I realize it's no longer Thursday, but this week has flown by so quickly that I'm only now getting a chance to reflect upon the answers to this week's Wednesday Question:

What is your current beauty obsession?

When I asked this question, I made sure to specify that I was referring to a type of product, not a particular lipstick, foundation, etc. I figured that since I tend to obsess about one thing for a particular amount of time (I'll go a few months looking at just eyeshadows when I go to the drugstore, and then switch to nail polish, etc.) that I might not be alone in my ever-changing obsessions. And BOY WAS I RIGHT! It turns out that I'm far from alone, as I think I had a record number of responses to this question (39).

Probably not surprising to some of you, nail polish was far and way the winner for "obsession-of-the-moment". It's just such a darn easy thing to obsess over, it's it? Polishes are inexpensive (well, drugstore brands at least), they're everywhere (dollar store, drugstore, Target, Walmart, grocery store, clothing store, etc.) and you can change your nail polish as easily as you can change your clothes. Plus, there are so many interesting colors and textures on the market right now--you can amass hundreds of nail polishes and not have a single dupe in the bunch, it seems. Geeze, I think i just talked myself into another polish obsession just by writing that last sentence!

Closely following nail polish? Lip products. Another easily-available and inexpensive little obsession, right? Who doesn't love the look of a fresh tube of lipstick or a never-used stick of lip balm?

After nail polish and lip products, the obsessions started to branch out into things like blush, eyeliner, mascara, foundation, and bronzer. I even saw a few shout-outs to soap, which has indeed been a past obsession of mine. I love homemade bar soaps from etailers, Etsy, ebay, etc. And I also can empathize with those of you currently on a body wash obsession. It's easy to defend a fascination with body wash, because it's just so much fun to fill your shower with options, right?

All in all, I really want to thank each and every one of you for participating in this week's question. It gives me comfort to know that I'm not alone in my ever-changing obsessions, and that you're right there with me on this crazy journey!

Thursday Thoughts

Yikes! I figured I better get this post up before it's no longer Thursday! In case you missed this week's Wednesday Question, here it is again:

Of all the drugstore beauty purchases you've made over the summer, which one product are you the most happy with?

I absolutely loved how diverse and varied the answers were to this question. I'd say the only two responses that seemed to pop up a few times were Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure nail polish and various Wet n Wild eyeshadows (palettes and singles). Other than that, it seems that all of you are loving different things. It was SO interesting to read these responses--there was everything from Etude House to EOS covered in this post. Love it!

Thanks so much for sharing your favorite purchases from Summer '10. :)

Thursday Thoughts...

If you missed this week's question, here it is again:

When we move from one season to the next, what type of makeup products do you get excited to purchase for the new season?

Of the 29 responses I received to this week's Wednesday Question, an overwhelming number of you included nail polish in your answer. Glad to see I'm not alone!

Almost as popular? Eye shadow. I totally feel ya on that one as I love seeing all the new seasonal shades as well.  Several of you are excited to see the coming season's new lip colors, and I was surprised that many of you look forward to new blushes as well (funny, I never think about new blushes until I see them in the display, but now that you mention it, it's fun to see the new shades!). 

A few of you seem pretty excited by the prospect of new weather-appropriate foundations, and I was VERY happy to see that a few of you look forward to new bath and body products. How could I forget to mention that? It's always so fun to see the limited edition holiday lotions, body mists and body washes! Thanks for reminding me about those--it gives me one more thing to look forward to as summer comes to a close.

Thanks as always for your wonderful responses. I learn something new every week and I'm grateful for that!

Thursday Thoughts...

I had a feeling that the answers to this week's question would be varied, and you guys certainly didn't let me down! I absolutely loved being able to get a glimpse of your normal everyday makeup routines! (Click here if you missed this week's question.)

A few things that surprised me: I'm pretty much right in the middle when it comes to the amount of makeup products I use on a normal day. I use about 10, and many of you were right around this number as well. But oh how I envy those of you who said you use only 2 or 3 makeup products on a daily basis! I only wish I could pare down my essentials to that number.

I also thought it was so interesting to see how many of you use "double" products. In other words, many of you, in your daily routines, use two mascaras, two eyeliners, or two concealers. I totally understand this (especially the two concealers--one for under eyes and one for the rest of the face) but I never feel like I have enough time to use more than one form of any particular product at a time. So kudos to you that make time for these extra steps because I know they pay off!

I'm also jealous of those of you who make face primer a priority every day. I don't know why I tend to skip this step (probably just due to time constraints) but it can make world of difference, I know.

Geeze, this poll makes me feel like a slacker now! So many of you are really dedicated to great products and have found good application methods that you don't skip on a daily basis. That's wonderful and it really makes me want to start experimenting and see what I've been missing. So as always, thank you for this wealth of information. All of your answers were fascinating and I loved reading them!

Thursday thoughts...

I was surprised, but then not surprised, by the responses to this Wednesday's question about drugstore foundations.

Here's what didn't surprise me: the clear winner was Revlon ColorStay. It's a fantastic foundation for those of us who prefer medium-to-full coverage, and it's also fantastic for all skin types since there's a dry skin formula and also an oily skin formula. If I were more of a liquid foundation gal (my favorite formula is powder) then I think ColorStay would be my choice as well.

But here's what surprised me: the second most popular choice was L'Oreal True Match. Wow! Would you believe I've never even tried True Match before? I have a hard time finding a good match for my skintone with L'Oreal foundations, but I think I might need to give this one a shot now.

Other honorable mentions that received a few votes: Cover Girl Simply Ageless (I love the blush from this line so I might have to try the foundation), Rimmel Lasting Finish and Maybelline Dream Mousse.

Big thanks to everyone who took the time to leave a response to this week's question. I LOVE reading your answers and they always give me great ideas about what products to try and review in the future. You all are so detailed and helpful in your responses--I can't thank you enough!

So do you agree? Would you wear Revlon ColorStay for the rest of this year (if you had to)? If not, did your favorite drugstore foundation make the cut? If not, let me know what brand you love!

Thursday Thoughts

I've decided to start a new feature called Thursday Thoughts. It's actually a follow-up to The Wednesday Question and I think it's long overdue!

Basically, every Thursday I'm going to review all of the answers you've given to me in response to the Wednesday Question, and kind of give you a little summary as to the things I've noticed. It can be as simple as letting you know that we all tend to agree on one particular product, or maybe I might want to let you know about something unique that's been brought to my attention.

I figured that since you all take the time to leave such incredible, thoughtful responses to my Wednesday Question every week, it would be helpful to actually discuss your responses and share the results here, instead of just in the comments on the original post. I hope you end up getting something out of this, because believe me, I get SO much out of your answers every week!

So to refresh your memory, this week's question was:

Bath & Body Works or The Body Shop?

An overwhelming amount of you tend to prefer Bath & Body Works over The Body Shop, but not for the reasons you might expect! For some of you, BBW is the winner by default, just because you don't have a TBS in your area. Many of you prefer BBW because their prices are lower (and of course because of the famous BBW Semi-Annual Sales).

For those of you who love your TBS, I was surprised to hear that the main reason why so many of you love TBS is because of their makeup. It's been a while since I tried TBS makeup, but I do remember loving a few items very much in the late '90s. I think it's time I revisited TBS's makeup section!

Another thing people tend to love from TBS is their famous body butters. Who can argue with that, really? They're pretty awesome.

I did find it interesting that several readers who prefers BBW likes to shop there because of the prices ,while it didn't seem that too many of you felt that BBWs products were actually better than TBS's products. Maybe I read that wrong though--do some of you think that BBW's products are superior to TBS's?

So for the purposes of this poll, I'm going to say that BATH & BODY WORKS comes out the victor, but it might be a shallow victory because things like geography and pricing played a major role in why so many of you prefer this brand.

PS: I don't want to forget to mention that a few of you said, "Thanks, but no thanks" to both TBS And BBW. Lush, etailers and Etsy sellers have your hearts (which I can completely understand!).

So what do you think of these results? Did anything surprise you? I'd love to hear your thoughts!