Glow by Lady E

Glow Girls already know this one. My beloved Minimalist cream blush. My ultra-favorite blush. And, naturally, no longer available. So I did what perfectly rational beauty lovers do when a favorite product disappears: I started rationing it. A little today. Not too much. Save some. Make it last. Except eventually I realized something. What exactly was I saving it for? The whole reason I loved this blush was because I loved wearing it. And there are so many beautiful blushes out there that I haven’t even met yet. So one day I decided: what the heck? Use it. I stopped treating every swipe like I was depleting the national blush reserve. I wore my favorite blush when I wanted my favorite blush. And last week, I finally finished it. I’m still sad that I can’t replace it. But I’m much happier that the last of it ended up on my cheeks instead of sitting indefinitely in a little compact because I was afraid to run out. Sometimes enjoying something completely is better than pr...

I already reviewed this INK Velvet shade, and I still think it’s beautiful. On me, it’s one of those wonderfully natural shades that doesn’t announce itself before I enter the room. It just works. Oh, and it’s one of those very few matte lip products that don’t dry out my lips. So naturally, I kept using it. And using it. Until I reached the ridiculous stage of beauty-product ownership where I knew there was probably still a little product somewhere inside the bottle. Technically. But between the tiny opening and the doe-foot applicator, retrieving it had become a minor engineering project. Could I have fought for those final molecules? Probably. Did I? No. There are limits to my devotion.  You know this, Glow Girls. I don’t like wasting time.  Eventually the amount of product potentially remaining became less valuable than the time I was wasting trying to get to it. So I’m calling it. Used to the last drop accessible to a reasonable human being. Good enough. I...

I bought this MUMUSO Purple Perilla lotion on sale.  It was sitting there on the till with a 40 or 50% off sign. I read calming. So I got it.  But since it was on sale, it also meant my expectations weren’t exactly standing at attention. But my skin surprised me. It worked beautifully. No reactions whatsoever. No problems with the scent either, which matters to me because fragrance and I do not always have the most peaceful relationship. It simply became something I could use without thinking too much about it. And perhaps that’s an underrated quality in skincare. Not everything needs to transform your life, arrive with twelve actives and demand its own complicated ritual. Sometimes you just want to put lotion on your skin and have your skin say: Fine by me. Apparently mine said that often enough that I finished the bottle. Not bad for something I added last minute because it was on sale. —- With elegance and quiet fire, Lady E Founder, Glow by Lady E An editor...

  My hair seems to have a thing for Lux Japan products. This Damage Repair hair mask was no exception. It worked well on my hair, but there was another reason I enjoyed using it: it was easy to rinse out. If you have really long hair, you already understand why that deserves its own sentence. A hair treatment can make all sorts of glorious promises, but if I have to stand there forever trying to rinse it out of several miles of hair, our relationship is already deteriorating. This one didn’t make hair washing feel like an endurance event. I could work it through my hair, rinse it properly, and move on with my life. And I appreciated that quite a lot because… (gestures toward completely demolished tub) Used to the last drop. Or at least every drop I could reasonably persuade out of it. —- With elegance and quiet fire, Lady E Founder, Glow by Lady E An editorial space for stories, art, and intentional living

  There’s something particularly satisfying about finishing a product you’ve already written about. Not testing it. Not forming first impressions. Not wondering whether I’ll still like it three weeks from now. Finished. My Molang Honey sheet masks and this body scrub both made it all the way to the end. (Finally for the Molang sheet masks, right?) I’ve reviewed both before, so I won’t review them all over again here. But perhaps using something until there is nothing left to use is its own kind of review. Beauty products come through my bathroom rather frequently. Some are lovely for a week. Some get pushed to the back of a shelf. Some simply stop working for me. And then there are the ones that quietly disappear because I kept reaching for them. Maybe an empty container is the shortest review of all. I liked it enough to finish it. If you want to read my thought about these products, just type them on my search bar. —- With elegance and quiet fire, Lady E Founder, Glow by Lady E...

  Decades ago, before I even started blogging, it was natural for me to finish a product that I bought.  It was common sense.  Before Project Pan or Empties was a thing, I’ve been quietly finishing products.  A quick tour in my archives will reveal plenty of products that I’ve used and loved through the years.  There’s something very satisfying about finishing a product down to the last drop.  Like some sort of accomplishment.  I feel like I got my money’s worth.  I didn’t love the products above.  They were okay.  They served their function. But they will never enter my space again.  This last one isn’t the exact product I used up.  I used up the blue variant, but forgot to take a photo before throwing it in the recyclables bin.  I couldn’t find one in my archives, too.  So this will have to do.  This was more used to the last pad than drop.  These are Mumuso nail polish remover wipes.  I love them....