A Reluctant Review: Paula's Choice BHA Exfoliant

In last week's post Skincare SOS: My Recovery Routine When I've Been Bad, I mentioned I've been using the Paula's Choice Resist Daily Pore-Refining Treatment With 2% BHA to help undo the results of neglecting my skin.  While most of my Skincare Wardrobe is comprised of Korean beauty products and cosmetics from Asia, I can't deny that western skincare is still in the lead when it comes to acids.  Specifically, acid exfoliants, chemical peels, and prescription-strength "bring your skin to Snesus" topicals like azelaic acid and retinol.

Studies courtesy of my research frenzy for Cosrx BHA Power Liquid Exfoliant Review & My Descent Into BHA Research Madness

However, with a name like "Paula's Choice Resist Daily Pore-Refining Treatment With 2% BHA", you would think it was a K-Beauty product, right next to other "ridiculously long product name" titleholders like the "Missha Time Revolution Night Repair Science Activator Borabit Ampoule" and ... well, too many others to list.  Interestingly, Paula's Choice does make Asia-exclusive versions of their products, but this isn't one of them.

In this post:

• Product details
• Ingredients & how to apply
• How I was lured away from my usual BHA
• The good and the bad

 I'm somewhat reluctantly reviewing this product, because I'm not a big fan of the company, but dodgy science demos and flip-flopping shade parades aside, they make some gooood acids.

Skincare SOS: My Recovery Routine When I've Been Bad

I'm in the dermal doghouse.  My skin is in crisis: dry and greasy, flakes everywhere, clogged pores overrun with sebaceous filaments & blackheads, dull & uneven texture, every wrinkle in sharp relief, and coated in a disgusting shell of dead skin mixed with sebum and who knows what else.   I'm sorry, skin; I know I've done you wrong.

Today, as I apologized to my skin for neglecting it for ... weeks, really, it occurred to me that rather than reviewing the cleanser I was about to use in my "bringing my skin back from exile" routine, I should talk about that instead.  So today's post is all about how to bring skin back from the brink of despair.

Farewell, lovely things on the right, until this skincare penance is over.

Obviously, everyone's skin is different, and what works for me isn't going to work for everyone, but it's not the specific products which are important, but their function, so anything that fills that role will work!

In this post:

• Routine to recover from long-term neglect; illness, depression, or skincare ennui
• Cleansing, re-balancing, and dealing with breakouts
• Products I avoid while I'm nursing my skin back to health

As tempting as it is to go hard with every problem solver in your Skincare Wardrobe to bring your skin up to speed, resist the urge for instant gratification.  It will only bring woe-- and breakouts, more flakes, and possibly permanent damage.  We're playing the long game, and patience will be rewarded.

Cosrx BHA Power Liquid Exfoliant Review & My Descent Into BHA Research Madness

This has been a difficult post.  It was supposed to be merely a review of the Cosrx BHA Blackhead Power Liquid with a delicious little snack science on the side, like I did in Milky Dress Vita C+ Powder Review & It's Time to Get Nerdy About Vitamin C. Fun, crisp, & fluffy, with a satisfying aftertaste.

Unfortunately, this was not to be; I've spent days hunting down studies, tracking the muddled pawprints of sources in roving bands of reference herds, stalking my prey through stacks of marginally related papers, and all I've managed to uncover is some seedy research practices and what appears to be a multi-decade ongoing game of academic telephone.

Thankfully, there's more to products than just their INCI profile, and having gone through a good four or so empties of the Cosrx BHA Blackhead Power Liquid, a daily BHA (beta hydroxy acid) chemical exfoliant, I feel confident in discussing my personal experiences with this product even if the exact details of its scientific pedigree remains murky.

Emptying a bottle and cracking into a fresh one is so satisfying!

Ultimately, reviews are (or should be) our thoughts on products that we've used, and I've certainly used this enough, by both time and volume, to be ready to review it; I just never did so as there's already excellent reviews of this product out there, such as fellow Snailcast podcaster Fifty Shades of Snail, and Sheryll of The Wanderlust Project.  However, I was keen to do another review-with-a-slice-of-science post, since I enjoyed the last one so much, so I decided to take advantage of our household's as-yet-unexpired university library subscription and hit the research papers.  I sort of regret that, but we'll plumb those depths of despair later.

In this post:

• Why chemical exfoliants are swoon-worthy
• Product details
• Ingredients & short review
• A research overview on the benefits of BHA and salicylic acid
• BHAs don't do what we think they do
• Why use BHA at all?
• Photoprotection, not photosensitivity
• Does it work on acne?

• Final thoughts

I'm going to keep the review portion short and sweet, so I can focus on the results of my research efforts; this way you can bail out of the rabbit hole if you're not into descending into nerdy madness.

Elizavecca Milky Piggy Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask Review: Tested & Detested

Mid-week is the perfect time for a mini-review of the famous Elizavecca Milky Piggy Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask.  (Update: my word counter tells me that "mini" review is a lie.  Eh, everything's relative!)  This mask is old news; it's a classic example of skincaretainment, and the product is more well-known for its entertainment value than the actual effects on the skin.  That's partly why I've avoided it until now, but it's summer and my skin is a slimy mess in this humidity so it's very ready for an occasional clay mask.  Why not one that inflates into a comically wide cloud of foam while on your face, making you look like a pixar character while doing double duty of first cleansing and clay mask style deep pore cleansing all in one go?

There is an inner jar lid/seal to keep air from reacting to the product.

Sounds too good to be true, right?  Plus, lots of people have used this mask, including fellow Snailcast podcaster Fifty Shades of Snail, so I purchased a jar of it and give it a try.  Then I dropped all irritants out of my routine and tried it again.  Sometimes, you have to just have to hurt yourself twice to confirm something is bad news.

In this post:

• Product details
• Ingredients
• What it did to my face
• What I'd rather use instead

Before using this mask the second time, I skipped anything that would compromise my moisture barrier for at least a week: no acid exfoliants, no manual exfoliants, no tretinoin, nothing to weaken my skin barrier or make me more sensitive.  I wanted to make sure there was no chance the culprit was just piling clay on top of sensitive skin.  Unfortunately, it still left my skin screaming for mercy and I smothered its cries with snail gel to recover.

Beginner Friendly: Simple K-Beauty Starter Kit #1 - Oily & Acne-Prone Skin Type

Earlier this week I mentioned that I was going to be doing a series of K-Beauty Starter Kits, which sounds all fancy and deliberate, when in fact it's a matter of me telling you all about actual starter routines that I have given (or recommended) to real, live people.  Although I still can't recommend a product for you, nor can I give you specific advice as I would need a license for either, I can, and I am, going to share with you the care packages I have made for family and friends to introduce them to K-Beauty.

I want to get them hooked on my skincare obsession, but beginners want a routine that looks like the leftmost routine in the background of this image, not the rightmost:

Left: simple. Right: eeeeek!  Both are examples of the daily routines I post on Instagram.

As I mentioned in the last post, this idea was inspired by the discussions The Snailcast has been mulling over on how difficult it is to simplify something that is endlessly customizable.  Tracy of Fanserviced-b posted a fantastic Easy Starter K-Beauty Skincare Routine for $100 on Amazon, and I hope to build on that by giving examples of starter routines I have given actual people.

Let me recap last week's post explaining how came to a place where I'm comfortable with talking specifics, since that's a thin line:

I still can't make recommendations for you.  (No, seriously, I can't.  No blogger can.)  But, if you'd like to see what I would personally select and put into a "routine in a box" for my personal friends and family members who are interested in this skincare obsession of mine but can't be bothered with all the research and customization and ordering things from Korea.  I can hear my mother now: "This is too fussy, I'd rather just mix up simple things in my kitchen." NO, mom!  Not unless you actually have a background in science when you're DIYing skincare like Chel of Holysnails, please just ... let me send you some stuff.  In a box.  You don't even have to do any work, just use them in the order I put on the letter, ok? 

Then I realized ... if I can pick things to put in a box for my mother and others, and in fact have already done so, why can't I share them with my readers?  After all, I am not recommending that people buy these products to treat a skin condition, I'm just sharing what would go in my care package for that person, based on their general skin type, needs, and most importantly, are simple.  All of the kits will have 5 items or less!

Lemme tell you right now, the 5 item limit is tough when a routine can easily have 15-20 steps in it.  I am determined to stick to it, though, because although are limitless places that you can take your customization, it's good to start simple first.

In this series:

All starter kits will feature 5 items or less, what they're for, and how to use them.  All lovingly selected with thought and care, because when I make kits for my friends and family, it's a box o' love.  Obviously not everything works for everyone, patch testing is necessary, etc etc.  These are just my personal picks.

• Starter Kit # 1: My college-age friend with oily, acne-prone skin (you are here!)
• Starter Kit # 2: My college-age friend with dry, stressed skin (link here)
• Starter Kit # 3: My mother's sensitive, dehydrated, aging skin kit (link here)
• Starter Kit # 4: My mother-in-law's normal, hyperpigmented, aging kit (link here)

• Bonus Kit if I haven't thrown myself off a cliff from creating all these visual (yes, visual) kits:  My personal kit if my house burned down and I had to start over with nothing but Amazon gift cards, which won't be simple, less than 5 items, or anything else straightforward.  No promises. Done! K-Beauty on Amazon: Rebuilding a 15+ Step Routine if My Stash Caught on Fire

Once these posts are live, I will link them here.  Done!  As I mentioned in the original post, these items will be from Amazon for accessibility reasons as a counterpoint to the more internationally-focused From Beginner to Expert Mode: Where I Buy K-Beauty & Asian Cosmetics post.

Let's get going with the first one, for my college-age friend with oily, acne-prone skin!

What's In My Skincare Wardrobe: Actives (Prescriptions, Antioxidants, and Acids) Edition

It's time for a routine update!  Instead of posting my full routine and possibly terrifying people who get the wrong idea that I use all these steps at once, I've been loving the concept of the "Skincare Wardrobe" and posting a "What's in my Skincare Wardrobe?" series instead.  If you aren't familiar with this concept, it's the idea of having a 'closet' of options to select from rather than wearing everything all at once-- people often look at massive multi-step K-Beauty routines and mistakenly think you throw all of it at your face at once.  You don't.

In fact, I post my actual routine to Instagram on a regular basis, if you're curious to see what a 'real' daily routine looks like.  I can assure you, it does not look like this:

My current Winter 2016 Skincare wardrobe

Yes, this is a photo of my Skincare Wardrobe, from which I might select anywhere from 3 to 15+ items from in a day.  You don't wear the entire contents of your closet in a daily outfit!  You can read more about this key concept is The Painful Path to K-Beauty Wisdom: 7 Mistakes Beginners Make:

I look at my products as a 'wardrobe' of options; I may have items in my closet ranging from bathing suits to winter coats, but that doesn't mean I'm going to wear every piece of clothing I own at once.  However, having a range of skincare options is actually a good thing, in my opinion, because it populates your wardrobe with options that you can mix and match depending on the 'weather' that day.

In the first of these posts, What's In My Skincare Wardrobe: Cleanser Edition, I showed the 8 cleansers I have in rotation + what they're for + when I use them.  Mind you, if I wasn't testing things for review, I would likely need at most 3-4 cleansers, instead of 8.  Most people may be happy with just the two needed for double cleansing, and that's perfectly fine!

I've already covered cleansers, so next up in the order of product application is Actives.

Top row: current actives which don't allow use of any others.  Bottom row: what I'd be using if I wasn't using a hardcore prescription that prohibits me throwing any other exfoliants at my face.

I've held off posting this version because since switching to a prescription Azelaic acid and Tretinoin Rx from Curology/Pocketderm, I've all but dropped actives from my routine.  Why? Because I quickly learned, in the form of broken capillaries, that Tretinoin is a jealous mistress who doesn't tolerate sharing.

That being said, I still want to share the actives that I would happily pick back up and use if I stopped using my prescription, as these have been a mainstay of my routine for a long time.

I'd just like to remind people that the idea of a Skincare Wardrobe is not to have a lot of things open at once, but to allow yourself the flexibility to customize your daily routine.  That's what the multi-step Asian skincare hype is all about, in my opinion.  Customization for the win!

In this post:

• What are actives?
• pH adjusting toner
• Prescription with Azelaic acid and retinoid (tretinoin)
• Vitamin C serum
• BHA acid exfoliant
• AHA acid exfoliant
• Actives that don't exfoliate

Before we jump into this, I'd just like to remind everyone that these are not meant to be used all at once.  Pick your poison and stick to it until you're ready for more.  Tread carefully.  Do your research, and consult with a dermatologist if you have question or have a specific skin concern you're trying to address.  BE CAUTIOUS.  There is a time to go in guns blazing, and acids are not it.

2015 in Review, Part I: My Favourite K-Beauty Products of 2015

This year has been definitely been an exciting time for K-Beauty and Asian beauty product fans; long-time fans have seen what was originally a grassroots niche become mainstream.  We've seen the advent of products carried in Sephora, Amazon, and other major retailers, regularly featured in major magazines like Vogue and Allure, and even book releases on the subject- K-Beauty and AB (Asian beauty products) has really come into its own this year, and it's the time of year for 'best of' posts, so here's mine!

The amazing scent of this wreath makes up for the needles everywhere.  Mostly.

There will be two parts to this post, the first a light-hearted rundown of products, and the second a more reflective discussion of the themes, concepts, tips, trends, etc, of 2015.

In this post: Favourite Products of 2015

• Favourite Cleansers of 2015

• Favourite First cleanser

• Favourite Foaming Cleanser

• Favourite Travel Cleanser

• Favourite Cleansing Tool & Honourable Mention

• Favourite Acne & Anti-Aging Products of 2015

• Favourite Skincare of 2015

• Favourite Toner

• Favourite Essences

• Favourite Serum

• Favourite Cream (and overall top pick for 2015!)

• Favourite Sheet Masks

• Favourite Sunscreen

• Favourite Makeup of 2015

• Favourite Base Makeup

• Favourite Lip Product

The more serious-toned Part II is here: 2015 in Review, Part II: My Favourite K-Beauty Tips, Concepts, & Trends of 2015, and includes:

• K-Beauty goes mainstream: does it have to be Korean to be K-Beauty?
• The most influential concepts of 2015
• Healthy habits: things I adopted and let go of in 2015, for the better
• Top tips from 2015: things that made my life easier
• Trends I loved in 2015 and will continue to love in 2016

It should go without saying that this is just my personal list of top picks; please don't be offended if your favourite isn't here!  This year has seen a lot of interesting developments beyond just the products, so rather than just focus on the tangible products, I'll also be giving a shout-out to the intangible developments that excited me the most in Part II- now finished and linked above.

A Review of Curology (PocketDerm) & Why I'm an Azelaic Acid Fangirl

I had a hard time choosing the title of this post, not because I couldn't think of anything, but because I thought of so many horrible puns that I struggled to resist, such as: "AHA, BHA, now BAE?" (Har. Har.) Or "S&M in your skincare: how to abuse your pores and enjoy it", or "Is that a tube of Azelaic acid or are you just happy to see me: a review of Pocketderm" and so on.

The two Azelaic acid creams I've tried.  What's that wheat doing there?!  You'll see later.

Against all odds, I've managed to restrain myself and focus on the relative seriousness of this post, but it's difficult because my pupils have dilated from a day's worth of reading on the wonders of Azelaic acid and I'm sort of flopping around in a fangirling frenzy.

In this Post:

• My First Experience with an Azelaic Acid Cream
• My Experience with Curology PocketDerm's Service
• My Review of the PocketDerm Product
• Where it fits in my Asian skincare routine
• Why Azelaic Acid is so Exciting (Warning: Nerdiness)

Update: PocketDerm has changed it's name to Curology, and added more ingredients and flexibility to their formulations.  Carry on!

I've placed the "Serenade to Azelaic Acid" at the very end, as this post is quite long and those who aren't interested in 1. ridin' nerdy, 2. curling up with a cup of tea in a comfy chair to read the whole thing can skip out early.

Updated Multi-Step Korean Skincare Routine Summer 2015: Sheet Masks Galore

Today I'm finally posting the Summer version of my routine, as a follow-up to my in-depth discussion of the Korean multi-step skincare approach post which includes all my Winter/Spring 2015 products ... all 30 of them.

Even though scorching, sticky summer has arrived, the guidelines of thinking in steps, not products, how to add in or remove additional products, and their order of use have not changed, but as always my skincare has shifted to match the season.

Even though there are quite a few products here, this is a far cry from the 30+ in my Winter/Spring routine here.

However, just as I mentioned in the Winter/Spring routine, I use only a few products per day, and tailor my selections to how my skin is feeling ... but let's be blunt here.  I barely use anything these days, because it's TOO DAMN HOT.

As I mentioned in the post: Science Meets K-Beauty Wisdom: How Keeping Cool May Be Good for Your Skin, temperatures here are climbing rapidly and when it gets hot enough that I'm peeling off my office chair with the sound of duct tape being ripped off the roll, I don't want to do a full routine.

In this post:

• It's too hot for layers
• My AM & PM routines
• Cleansers
• Actives 
• Hydrators
• Top 3 Summer Sheet Masks
• Occlusives
• Treatments/Sunscreen

So, here's the updated version of what my Summer 2015 routine is looking like these days!

'Jolse Is My Bae' Haul, Thoughts on Hauling Responsibly, & Skincare as a Hobby

Recently, the lovely and insightful blogger adordee wrote a post on How to Beauty Haul Responsibly, which was an excellent and thought-provoking read.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart, because while I am a rapid and joyful consumer of skincare, I'm also fanatical about organization and planning, comparing costs, and hunting down deals.  I've developed a system and approach that lets me balance how much product my skin can realistically use vs my thirst for new products, and all without negatively impacting our finances.  However, I think sometimes this cognizant and deliberate approach is easily overlooked when people are eyeballing sparkling hoards of hauls and sprawling towers of product.

As adordee points out:

I know this is a party pooper topic that no-one really wants to talk about, but it really is important.  I know from experience how easy it is to get yourself swept away. It’s so easy to reach for your wallet to spend spend spend when you see rave reviews, first looks, unboxings and the like from bloggers or users just gushing about their new Holy Grails.

I agree with her, and I also agree that this topic needs to be discussed more in the blogging community, even if only to give context to our individual decision making process that we use to avoid a tailspin of overspending and impulse buying.

Speaking of deliberate buying, I'll also be unboxing my recent Jolse haul as an example of my decision making process in action.

In this post:

• Skincare as a Hobby
• Thoughts on Hauling Responsibly
• Details of my Jolse Haul & why 'Bae'?

I've just finished a week (and weekend) long project, so this post was completed in sections.  If you spy something that you could swear wasn't there before, it's not you, I promise.

Multi-Step Korean Skincare Routine: Winter/Spring 2015, Part II: Current Products

In Part I, we looked at the basic steps that make up a multi-step Asian routine, and how I customize my routine based off how my skin is feeling.  

I also mentioned that you don't have to use Asian products, although I have found that Asian products are best suited to a multi-step routine.  Multitaskers are actually not always a good thing; sometimes you want the right tool for the job.

It's a rabbit hole, though, because sometimes you find yourself wanting a cream for oily days, one for normal days, and one for dry days, and then maybe a mist for a little extra hydration, and that whitening serum looks promising, and you haven't found an oil cleanser that works for you just yet, and the next thing you know, your daily lineup options look like this:

It's just as terrifying the second time, isn't it? (Click image for large size)

So do you really need all of that?  Of course not.  But it is possible to use it all and make your skin happy by doing so, as long as you only use what your skin actually needs, and you don't open more products than you can actually use up in 3-6 months.  (So says skin goddess Go Hyun Jung, if you google image search her, you'll see why I listen to her wisdom.)

In this post:

• Visuals of my current products/their order of use (pt. I)
• My actual base routine (pt. I)
• How I add in optional steps (pt. I)
• Think 'steps', not 'products' (pt. I)
• My current product lineup for each step (pt. II)

Multi-Step Korean Skincare Routine: Winter/Spring 2015

You may have heard about the multi-step skincare routine popular in Asia, particularly where women (or men, for that matter) can use anywhere from 10-20 products in a single day.

This is a really challenging concept for westerners, because we are taught not to overload our skin, that excess products are actually harmful, less is more, etc.  Indeed, you might look at this image of all the products I potentially might use in a day, and be horrified:

Behold the fearsome product line-up of my Winter/Spring 2015 routine! (Click image for large size)

Before you panic or decide I am crazy, there are two things to keep in mind: 1. the key word here is "potentially" meaning I don't use them all at once, and 2. the Asian skincare philosophy is all about customization.
  

My daily routine is actually quite simple (I promise) but I have a huge range of products I may potentially add in depending on the weather, what I'm going to be doing that day, but most importantly, what my skin feels like it needs.

In this post:

• Visuals of my current products/their order of use (pt. I)
• My actual base routine (pt. I)
• How I add in optional steps (pt. I)
• Think 'steps', not 'products' (pt. I)
• My current product lineup for each step (pt. II)

Putting your products in order, including pH dependent acids

One of the questions I hear the most often from new Asian beauty product fans is what order to place their products in, especially if they are using actives like Vitamin C serums or acids, which are pH-dependent.  After many individual responses, with the same questions over and over, I realized it needed its own post.

This is understandably overwhelming for many people. Image from: K-Beauty on Amazon: Rebuilding a 15+ Step Routine if My Stash Caught on Fire

There are some general rules that cover 90% of skincare, but once you add powerful actives like Vitamin C antioxidant serums and chemical exfoliants, things get a little more complicated.  This guide will cover them all.

In this post:

• Basic rules on the order that applies to all your skincare
• How to incorporate 'actives' which are pH dependent
• The order of your pH dependent products, such as BHA and AHA
• Borderline NSFW analogies if the technical terms are making your head spin

There is a lot of understandable confusion, because the product names don't really make sense or they are misleading: i.e. 'First Essence' that doesn't actually go first, a 'Lotion' that has the texture of water, and the even more mystifying-named 'Skin'.  (What??)

Now fit in 2 cleansers, 3 actives, and a partridge in a pear tree!

It makes you want to pull out a dartboard and let fate decide.

Better Beauty Through Chemistry: Unboxing of my digital pH Meter supplies

Unboxing posts are popular in the blogging world, but today's contents are a little different than what normally gets delivered to my door.

Kimwipes and buffer solutions and nitrile gloves oh my!

On the 12th day of Christmas, my mailman gave to me: A gallon of distilled water, 280 Kimwipes, 100 nitrile glooooooooooooves, 4 buffering solutions, 100 pH strips, one digital pH meter, and a partridge in a pear tree.  (Technically, the water was courtesy of my long-suffering and non-judgemental spouse, but you get the idea.  Also, no bird in a fruit tree; I'd have nowhere to put it.)

In This Post:

• My pH kit haul
• Prepping my gadgets
• Test results
• Lots of science blather about Vitamin C, BHA, and AHA
• Whether it's worth going to all this effort
• What's worth buying & where to get it

Over the last year, my interest in beauty products has shifted; I am as enamoured of Asian beauty products as ever, but now I'm highly curious about the science of skincare.

If you've been following my blog, you may have noticed that I have started looking deeper into the ingredients of my products, especially those that are considered 'actives' and therefore expected to have reliable results, and doing a lot of research on the science of skin and skincare, such as my Skincare Discovery: Why the pH of Your Cleanser Matters post, where I get granular about why pH is so integral to the health of your skin.

Tonymoly Latte Art Cappuccino Cream-in Scrub Review

This review has been a long time in the making, because it's one of those products that you neither love enough to use often, or hate so much you want to get a PSA out there as soon as possible.

This product is a classic example of me getting suckered into purchasing via a cutesy gimmick/adorable packaging.  Tonymoly in particular is very good at this; their products are never particularly good, yet I continue to pick things up because I fall in love with the packaging.  In this case, I was actually angry because I ordered it thinking it was going to look like this:
"The latte art hearts are so cute!" I thought.  "I love how the bottom of the cup unscrews and reveals the 'coffee'/product inside!"  I thought.   Thus, I bought it.  However, that's not what I got.  Instead, I got this:

I of course furiously started googling as soon as I unboxed it, and I saw to my dismay that it was not a fake, it was in fact the 'new' packaging and I was not going to have any latte hearts greeting me each morning.

I was really hoping the scrub inside would make up for it, but alas, it was pretty firmly mediocre, even if it has an interesting gimmick.  Read on for the full review!

Summer Holiday Haul!

This week I finally received some goodies in the mail that were slightly delayed by the summer holiday season, but I'm glad to have got them in my hot little hands at last.

If you're as interested in beauty products as I am, you're probably just as guilty of feeling the "I've got a package" thrill, so don't judge me for already opening the prettyandcute.com package-- I got it weeks ago, in fact 2 days after placing my order, so I was just waiting on the Korean package to arrive.

If you are wondering if that fabric is decorated with little green gremlins getting tanked at a kegger, you would be correct.  It was in my fabric stash and seemed ideally suited to a Canada Day/Independence Day-themed weekend, as I am pretty sure several of my neighbours are starting to resemble these little green guys after 4 days of partying.

Read on for the contents of my mega-haul!