Initially, I brought home this $5 Burt’s Bees Mango & Orange Energizing Body Bar from Target 1) because I can always use a little extra energy, and 2) because I thought it kinda looked like food, ha!

I ended up liking the invigorating citrusy scent so much that I started using it to clean more than mah bod.

When I used up the last little slivers of my bar of Becca Brush Soap, I grabbed Burt’s Mango & Orange bar on a whim, using it to clean a couple of skunk brushes that I’d used with a bright blush and a MAC 239 brush crusted over with concealer.

As luck would have it, Burt’s invigorating body bar worked wonders on the brushes, removing all of the funk from their stinky ferules and the gunk from the handles and brush heads themselves.

I’d like to shake the little hand of the bee who developed this bar and thank him/her for doing such a great job. Not only do I think it’s one heck of an energizing, moisturizing body bar, it’s also one of the better brush cleansers I’ve used in a while.

And fast, too. It cuts through hard-to-remove products like dried foundation just as quickly as Becca’s Brush Soap does and rinses without putting up a fight. After air drying, my brush bristles feel soft, clean and malleable, not crunchy or stiff.

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Nail lacquers better look out! There’s a new sheriff in town, and he brought a case of these of amazing E.L.F. Eyes Lips Face Nail Polish Remover Pads.

A dollar doesn’t stretch as far as it used to, but someone forgot to tell that to E.L.F. With the exception of that travel pouch of emergency Nutella in my purse (no judgement), these are the best $1 products I’ve seen in a while.

A beauty obsessed pal of mine recently raved about pre-soaked nail polish remover pads, saying that they saved her a ton of time and kept her nails and cuticles in good condition, and WOW! — she was not kidding.

For removing non-glittery nail polishes, these are the shiz! One pad takes care of the whole kit and caboodle for me — base coat, top coat and multiple layers — for all 10 fingers.

Glitters, on the other hand (no pun intended) are a different story. I tried to see how these would handle my recent glitter ombre mani, and although the pads put up a good fight and cut through most of the sparkly stuff, I still had to use four of them to finish the job (there are 18 of them in a pack).

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5 Things That Give Me a Strange Sense of Satisfaction

1. Taking off my bra after a really long day
2. Flossing the HECK out of my teeth
3. Cleaning my belly button with a Q-tip
4. Clipping my toe nails (it’s even better if they’re really long)
5. Vigorously exfoliating with these shower gloves

I just picked up this cute new pair by EcoTools ($3). It’s made from 65% recycled materials, which I thought was pretty cool. Probably puts a lot of old plastic soda bottles, yogurt cups and tubs of margarine to good use.

The gloves feel soft and pliable, yet they’re still coarse and dense enough to give my bod a good scrubbing.

I got them in green because they matched my bath towels (nerd!), but they also come in brown and blue.

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Wearing Jordana Easyshine Glossy Lip Color in Raspberry

Like the Two-Buck Chuck of the hybrid gloss/lipstick world, these $1.99 Jordana Easyshine Glossy Lip Colors could be giving department store brands conniptions.

Remember the highfalutin $34 Dolce & Gabbana hybrids we looked at earlier this fall? Like those pricier pretties, these bargain basement beauties feel soft, slick and super moisturizing on my lips, and while slightly less pigmented than their more expensive counterparts, their shiny sheer-to-medium coverage should still turn heads (especially when spotters hear about their fantabulous price).

A gal could get all 12 available shades — Sugar Plum, Berry Colada, Grape-Tini, Raspberry, Cotton Candy, Pink Lemonade, Watermelon Juice, Sweet Strawberry, Mango Delight, Fresh Melon, Brown Sugar and Sugar Cookie — and leave the store having spent just about $24.

Sweet!

Just like these flavors and scents. Each one tastes and smells like its name suggests (another nice touch). The flavors and fragrances seem a little strong to me at first, but thankfully they fade within a few minutes.

From the left: Sweet Strawberry, Berry Colada, Watermelon Juice, Sugar Cookie, Sugar Plum and Raspberry

Swatches from the left: Berry Colada, Raspberry, Watermelon Juice, Sweet Strawberry, Sugar Plum and Sugar Cookie

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I still have no proof that Tabs was involved in the disappearance of my Shu Uemura lash curler earlier this year, but he’s still the number one suspect.

Every time I ask him about it, he gets all evasive, all nonchalant like, “doopdadoo. Weather’s nice.”

Yeah…well I’m on to you, Tabs. I’ll figure it out.

The day it disappeared, I nearly lost my mind. I was crushed. It took me 20 years and probably a dozen different brands to find a curler as great as Shu, and no device had ever curled my lashes that well.

That is, no device until now.

Ever since Shu Uemura pulled out of U.S. stores, the line has gotten tougher to find. Sure, there’s still their website, but if/when the replacement Shu lash curler I picked up after its predecessor’s disappearance ever mysteriously vanishes, too (I know it was you, Tabs!), at least I now know of a worthy replacement.

And it lives at Target stores.

New for fall, the $12.99 limited edition Sonia Kashuk Curl Up Eyelash Curler has a few great traits in common with my beloved $19 Shu.

Like Shu’s curler, Sonia’s fits the shape of my eye like a glove, and it doesn’t pinch the outer edges of my fringe (something that many other lash curlers do).

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