Monday Motivation is a (hopefully) exciting new feature that I’ve borrowed from the beauty blog Temptalia. Every Monday, I tell you what’s motivating me to get through this week (perfume-wise and otherwise), and then ask you to do the same!
I’ve got hella motivation this week in the form of an epic Sephora order in the mail. My beloved reader Debra has known me since I was 8, so she instinctively knew the perfect graduation present for me: Sephora gift cards! After a very thorough perusing of the Sephora website, I decided on a small bottle of Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine, the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette, and an aqua Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics nail polish. I’m so freaking excited- Orange Sanguine is going to be amazing for the summer.
What’s getting you through the week? Please share with us in the comments!
SCENTS OF SELF 
That is a gorgeous aqua color. I don’t do polish on my fingernails because I don’t have pretty hands and don’t want to call attention to them, but I always do my toes!
Just switched over to my summer scents. Sort of excited about them.
Getting me through the week: Lipstick Queen Medieval, still. My Sarah Bernhardt peonies. Carnal Flower body butter sample (whoooooa, so beautiful). Frequent hugs from Taz.
Oh, and Karl Urban. I would let Eomer be my space-age cranky Starfleet Dr. McCoy AAAANNYtime. 🙂
Blue polish and toenails were made for each other, weren’t they? Although I refuse to believe that you don’t have pretty hands. Hands are weird-looking in general! I’m sure yours are as lovely as anyone else’s. 😀
I never made the connection between Karl Urban and Eomer before!! He’s really built up some geek cred. He and Sulu are currently tied for “second-hottest man on the Enterprise” for me.
I don’t know what’s getting me through the week! The promise of another weekend? The hope that I can get through 9 more new student orientation sessions this summer and then go on vacation?!?! I don’t know.
Actually, I am really excited to get my bottle of Olene that I got for peanuts on HauteLook last week (thanks for the tip Ari, I might have missed it otherwise!). I think it’ll be really good for summer.
Nine? NINE??? Who what where when why?!?
(And it was my pleasure! That was a good price for a good perfume, from what you’ve told me.)
UT is TEH HUGE. sigh.
Although, I realize I actually miscounted. There are 9 regular summer sessions, but one was last week. So I have 8 to go. Although… I guess if you count the “make-up” session in August, it really is 9 more. But in August we don’t usually do all the same programming. Anyway, #2 starts today!
Orientation is weird, because it’s at the same time one of the funnest things we do – all the kids are so excited! – and one of the most exhausting. Particularly as the summer wears on, we tend to get less excited cohorts of kids (the really eager beavers sign up for the early sessions!), and then the 3 transfer sessions at the end are just emotionally exhausting on a lot of levels… students angry about how their courses transferred in, etc.
I have no Monday motivation. My vacation is almost over, I have not written a novel or acquired a cat, and it is raining again. Plus Adagio teas is all out of the Bruce Banner tea I like.
However, your Sephora choices are excellent. Thumbs up!
That is the WORST MONDAY EVER. We are all here for you in solidarity. I didn’t know you were planning on acquiring a new cat! Are you thinking kitten or full-grown?
I don’t think a kitten would be happy with my work schedule and I don’t think my beloved would be happy with a kitten. I’m looking for an adult, but chasing this dream I have long had of a purebred cat. There are two breeders in my state with adults they want to re-home; but they won’t make appointments for me to come visit the cats. Apparently it is crazy to want to meet a cat before I adopt it. I am getting frustrated. But then I can always give up on the idea of a ragdoll and go to the shelter like a grownup should. I wanted to use my vacation time to visit breeders that lived farther out. No dice.
What’s motivating me to get through this week? Your blog!!! Thank you so much for being a constant source of inspiration, Ari. Have a GREAT week! 🙂
Thank YOU, sweetest Debra! And you know I would never blog about such a lovely gift without sending a thank-you note first- it should be in your mailbox any day now!
My Shiro Cosmetics order is coming, including a custom made bronze lipgloss that I named after a character in a fantasy series and an eyeshadow with a picture of legolas in a birthday hat on the lid.
Darling Clandestine, my favorite indie perfumer, is having a sale for 40% off. I’m revisiting my samples trying to decide what to get full sizes of.
There is mint chocolate chip ice cream in the freezer.
I’m almost done with my Java programming class.
I leave for a month long trip to the UK in a month.
I’m sorry, I stopped reading after EYESHADOW WITH A PICTURE OF LEGOLAS
JUST KIDDING I READ THE REST TOO AND IT ALL SOUNDS AWESOME
What’s motivating me is that my kids only have three more days of school left, so I won’t have to get up at 5:00 til next September!! So not a morning person!
Congrats on the haul! Have wanted Naked 2 since it came out. Have the original Naked but the shades are too warm-toned for me and read reviews saying Naked 2 is cooler-toned..
So happy for you, Barbara! My little brother just switched to a school that opens at 9:30 rather than the previous 8, and the whole family is much happier. 😀 I’m not sure if Naked 2 is cool-toned, but it definitely has more grays than the original Naked, which has a ton of browns.
What’s my “happy thought” for the day? That I’m awaiting the Angel’s Trumpet perfume that the super customer service lady at Anthropologie’s main office located for me in Boston! (Recall my angst of last week trying to find some and then forget it– it worked out great!)
As for blue nails, I fear at my age someone would rush over, slap electrodes on my chest, and begin CPR!
Oh, I’m so happy you got your Angel’s Trumpet, Joanne! And as for the blue nails, let’s hope that your rescuer is someone cute and tries mouth-to-mouth first! 😉
My motivation for the week is the chance to meet Christopher Chong when he is here for the launch of Fate this Wednesday and even better, my mom arrives on Thursday to spend a month visiting, helping with the kids and perfume shopping, of course!
OK, you win! lol
So exciting!!! I hope you come back and tell us all about it, DS!
I love Temptalia, too. I have no idea how I ever bought makeup before it. LOL. That OCC nail varnish looks very pretty and I think Orange Sanguine has a spectacular opening. Nice choices! My motivation for the week: well, now that Game of Thrones is over, I guess I don’t have that to look forward to on the weekends, so I suppose it’s a perfume sample order that should arrive sometime this week. 🙂
My weekends suck now that both Doctor Who and GoT are on hiatus!! Makeup and Beauty Blog is my very favorite beauty blog (Karen has such a great writing voice), but Temptalia is an absolute treasure trove of information.